Return to Oz
by Mutitoon90
Summary: Dorothy Gale has returned to Oz with Muta, the stray barn cat, and Kiyone, the deputy, but they found the Emerald City in ruin, and it's residents in stone. This trio has to find new friends, battle new foes and find a way to restore the capital of Oz to its former glory before they become victims themselves.
1. Chapter 1

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter One

At a small farmhouse, a young woman was standing on the porch, listening to her legal guardian on the house rules, which was something the girl was 'not very good' at following.

"Now, you know the rules. One: No wild parties. Two: No inviting friends over. And three: No looking through our things. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." The girl rolled her eyes.

The older woman glared at the young lady as she continued to talk.

"Remember: I have the sheriff's phone number, and he has mine, so there's no way for you to cause trouble."

"The sheriff?" The girl groaned in annoyance.

"That's right." The older woman confirmed, "He's sharper than he looks."

"Right." The child said as she smiled, "Don't worry about me; I haven't burned down the farm yet."

"Of course." The middle-aged woman smiled before adding, "I just making sure that dosen't happen."

"Em!" A man's voice rang out to the woman, "We gotta go!"

"Coming, Henry!" The elder female replied, slightly announced with her husband's yell. Then, she turned to the younger girl and said, "You know the rules, right?"

"Right." The younger woman answered, "Now, get goin' before you two are late."

"All right, I'm going." Em said, "Dorothy, please don't go disappering on us again."

"If I can control it, I won't." Dorothy replied with a smile.

The two women hugged each other and said their good-byes before Em went her husband, Henry, who was driving the car and had the little black dog sitting in his lap.

"Uncle Henry!" Dorothy shouted, "Please take good care of Toto!"

"Sure will!" The older man shouted back, "Just don't burn the house down!"

The teenaged girl rolled her eyes, hardly amused by the uncle's joke as her aunt entered the car.

"Good-bye, Dorothy!" Henry yelled out, "Try to stay out of trouble!"

"I'll try!" Dorothy said, "Good-bye and good luck!"

Hearing the girl's voice, the husband, the wife, the family dog, and the livestock left the house. Dorothy waved at the group until they were out of sight.

Dorothy grew a artful smile and said to herself, "Time to break rule three."

Then, she sped off to the inside of the house and went to her guardians' bedroom and started searching from two things that she discovered that her aunt had taken from her: the items from Oz.

"Aha!" Dorothy exclaimed with a smile of victory, "Hidin' stuff from me's not something I like not, Aunt Em."

In her hands, the girl had the silver slippers, one of, if not the, most powerful items in Oz and the blue orb that Pallas had given her before her departure from the magically land.

"I can hardly wait to see my friends again." The young woman smiled as she told the items into her room, but not before replacing the slippers and the orb from the shoebox that she found them in with a pair of Em's least favorite shoes and a old baseball.

Running as she could, Dorothy went to her room. Making sure that the orb and the slippers were not going to harm each other, she placed them into her backpack. Pleased at herself, the brunette went to her nightstand and grabbed the very first thing that she had reveiced, although it was really hers in the first place: her enchanted hair tie, which was first white and became purple after Zeniba, the Grandmother-Witch of the North put a protection spell on it. The girl tied on the hair holder and went downstairs and locked the doors in the farmhouse before retiring to her bedroom to take a nap.

Unbeknowest to Dorothy, a pair of dark eyes loomed over her at her bedroom window. If Dorothy ever saw him, she would not know what to do with the eyes' owner.

* * *

Dorothy was in Oz again, walking on the yellow brick road. Making her way towards the Emerald City, the young Kansas girl went as fast as she could the residents of the magnificent city, from the guards of each direction to the ruler, which was Tenchi the scarecrow. Jigen, the former tin marksman, and Cerberus, the winged lion, were at the side of the straw-filled ruler, who was wearing an oversized crown that seemed barely fit his hatless head.

"Hey, everyone!" Dorothy screamed with overflowing glee and happiness, "I'm back!"

The people in the kingdom-like city cheered as the gates opened to her as she reached the gate. Nearly overwhelmed with joy, Dorothy almost inside the city when the ground started shaking.

"What's goin' on around here?" The girl asked as she tried to maintain her balance and footing.

Then, she saw seven gems flowing in the air, spinning around each other in a circular motion. Dorothy was shocked to see them and watched them vanish into thin air.

"What the-!?" Dorothy started to form a statement, but she never got to finish as a hot blast of wind hit the city and blew poor Tenchi off of his feet.

Seeing this, she shouted the scarecrow's name as she attempted to reach him as Tenchi held on to the crown with one hand, and the another was holding on to a flagpole. Jigen and Cerberus were already at Tenchi's side, trying to keep himself from flying away. However, they were unsuccessful as another gust of hot wind went under the straw-filled being and carried him out of sight.

"Tenchi..." Dorothy started to cry and moan for her friend.

Then, she felt the ground shake once again, but this time the ground started to break apart. As the two pieces of the earth drifted from each other, the crack that was made from the quake went between Dorothy's feet.

"HELP!" The poor girl screamed out, but no one came to her rescue as her feet lose their grip on the ground, which since her to the dark, deep depths of the earth.

* * *

Dorothy sat straight up as she awoke from the nightmare that she just had. Putting a finger to her neck and another to her wrist, she was relieved that it was a dream, but then the question formed in her brain: What if it was not a dream, but a warning of things to come?

Then, a yell ripped through the house, which was dark due to the coming of the evening.

"Dorothy! Are you all right!?"

The girl sighed in relief once again, because it was the deputy, Kiyone Makibi, who was also the only person that the brunette could really trust with her story of her adventure in Oz.

"Don't worry!" Dorothy returned the holler with one of her own as she grabbed her backpack and put it on her back, "I'll be right down in a moment!"

Going as fast as she could, the girl nearly flew out of her room and down the stairs. She kept the speed as the girl directed herself to the front door, but Kiyone was inside by that time due to her having a spare key, which caused her to end up being knocked down by the running female.

"Kiyone?!" A dazed Dorothy asked as she tried to recover from the impact.

"Who else?" The teal haired woman answered, "Santa Claus?"

Both girls got to their feet after a slightly difficult try to untangle themselves from each other. Once apart from each other, both friends started to talk to each other.

"So, it's been a while, huh?" Dorothy started off first, which Kiyone Makibi responded to by saying, "It's only been a couple of days."

"What's wrong with what I've just said?" The brunette asked her dearest friend.

"Well," Kiyone tried to choose her words wisely, "you're talking about it as if it were years, not days."

"Oh, really?" Dorothy responded in an odd way, by Kiyone's understanding of the young girl. Then, Kiyone asked, "You had a nightmare?"

"Yeah..." Dorothy confessed to her best friend.

"Don't worry," the teal haired looked at her friend with her light blue eyes, "everything's all right."

"That's easy for you to say," snapped the Gale girl, "you're not the one gettin' the nightmares!"

Kiyone only rolled her eyes, knowing that Dorothy only snap at her like that was if the dream was that frightening to the poor girl. Taking in a deep breath, Kiyone tried once more to calm her good friend.

"You're all right."

"But what about my friends?"

Kiyone was not one to believe in such places, like Oz, but Dorothy was not the kind of girl to tell a big lie like that, so she tried for the third time to ease her friend's worries and fears.

"They'll be all right, if they're as tough as you've said they were."

Dorothy could tell that Kiyone was not being very thoughtful with her choose of words, because she did not believe her friend's words. Just as she was about to yell at her friend, a loud banging stopped the brunette from giving the other girl an earful.

"Who's that?" Kiyone asked, not knowing who would visit with any member of the Gale clan besides herself.

"Don't know." Dorothy confessed, "I wasn't expectin' anyone tonight."

Then, the door flew open, revealing an oddly-dressed woman with fire-red hair and holding a pair of swords, which both were shown by a flash of lightning. This frightened the girls greatly.

Kiyone was the first to recover from the shock of seeing the bladed weapons and pull out her gun as she said, "Freeze, or I'll fire!"

The odd woman's reply: she kicked the gun from Kiyone's hands and swung one of her blades towards both young women.

"Run for it!" Dorothy shouted out as the woman swung the other sword at them after its twin stopped.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Kiyone ran after her friend and kept close.

Both young girls made their escape from the farmhouse by going out the back door, and the attacking female was close behind them, still swinging her sabers at them. And to add to their problems, the two friends were running when it started to rain.

"What can make this whole mess any worse!?" The deputy shouted as she followed Dorothy into the woods nearby the farm.

"Don't say that!" Dorothy warned her ally, but the warning came too late.

As they ran, they impacted onto an old, abandoned crate. Then, the girls and the crate rolled over the edge of a very small cliff-like hill and fell into the rushing river below!

"Kiyone!" Dorothy yelled to her firend, who was climbing into the crate. The teal haired female did hear the other girl and grabbed her friend's wrist, and she yelled out an instruction.

"Climb into the crate!"

Asking no questions, Dorothy manage to understand her ally's words and did as she was told to do. Once inside the box-like crate, she with Kiyone sighed a deep breath of relief.

"This was a ride I never want to go through agian!" The blue-green haired girl exclaimed in an attempt to speak, but she was in a shock from being attacked and falling into the local river.

"No joke!" Dorothy wheezed out to her friend.

Expecting no more problems, a growl grabbed the girls' attentions, and the females saw a stray cat that was just as wet and soaked as the duo was.

"Oops." The brunette responded to seeing the feline, "We must've uprooted the cat's home, when we bumped into it."

"Yeah..." Kiyone made no attempt to correct the brunette's words, knowing that Dorothy was right.

So, Dorothy, Kiyone and the stray cat spent the remainder of the storm and the night flowing down the ravine in the wooden crate. Little did any of them know that they were about to enter an unexpected adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Two

The warm dawn had rose over the horizon and declared that it was mid-morning by the time Doorothy had awakened from her slumber. Moving around, she realized that she was not in her bedroom but the crate that she and Kiyone has crashed into and used a make-shift boat for themselves to escape the attacking woman.

"Kiyone?" The brunette asked, which was responed by a moan of dismissal and displeasure. Not one to give up, Dorothy carefully and quickly slipped from her friend, who fell onto the wooden bottom of the crate.

"Ouch!" The teal haired female exclaimed, while Dorothy laughed loudly at the deputy from Kansas.

"Dorothy!" Kiyone yelled at her friend, who continued to laugh.

"Hey!" A man's voice rang out to the girls, who forze upon hearing the voice, "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

The girls turned to the direction of the vioce and saw the same cat giving them the same look the night before.

"Did you...say something?" Kiyone asked, unsure of her own senses.

The cat looked as confused as the deputy as he asked her, "Can you understand me?"

Kiyone nodded her head, dumbfounded that she heard a cat speak to her.

The feline looked at Dorothy and asked, "You too?"

"Me too." The brunette replied as she nodded.

Then, a nasty grin appeared onto the cat's face, showing the girls that he liked being understood. This made Kiyone very nervous. Dorothy, however, was not as worried about the cat, because some of her friends in the land of Oz were animal in form, but she never knew that animals from the outside world would be able to talk.

"Well, maybe you two would be so kind as to SHUT UP!" Yelled the cat before returning to his nap.

"Well, I never!" Kiyone was offended, which was evident in her action of putting her fists onto her hips.

"Yeah." The brunette agreed. Then, she got to her feet and said, "We better get goin' if we want to find out where we are."

Kiyone nodded in agreement and getting to her feet as well. Then, she said, "Looks like we're in the desert."

"Man," Dorothy groaned upon hearing the news, "I don't want sand in my shoes!"

The young deputy agreed with her friend when it came to the lack of any desire of having sand in her own shoes, but she knew that she and Dorothy would have to endure the sands if they wish to pass through the desert.

"Hey, look over there!" Dorothy shouted, which was unneeded and painful to Kiyone's ears.

Kiyone, dispite the pain, obeyed and saw want the brunette saw: a lush patch of grass that reached into a forest that was as lush as the grass. Amazed, Kiyone considered the possiblity of being in Oz, but she did not say anything in case if they were not in the land that Dorothy claimed to have spirited off to a month earlier.

"That's great!" Kiyone responded to the sight of the pasture, "It's worth the sand in our shoes."

"That's not the best part," Dorothy answered to the comment, "but the stones in the desert sure are!"

Pleased with this odd, but appreciated, change of fortune, the deputy said excitingly, "Let's go then!"

"Right!" Jumped Dorothy in her glee, and she was the first to cross the desert sands by jumping from stone to stone until she reach the green grass.

Kiyone followed behind her friend, but she lacked the speed and enthumism that Dorothy had. This made the deputy think that Dorothy had changed a bit since the visit to Oz.

Once the teal haired reached the pasture, Dorothy smiled and said, "Now, we're done with that desert, let's find some breakfast."

As soon as the statement was completed, the cat's ears perked up to a certain word.

"Breakfast?" The cat lifted his head towards the girls, who were leaving for the forest, "I don't wanna miss that!"

The stray cat looked down at the sands, which he sensed were dangerous, and then he turned to the stones. Timing the leap carefully, the feline leaped from his crate-home and landed on the first rock. He repeated this until he was being tickled by the small blades of grass.

"Hey, wait for me!" The cat shouted as he chased after them.

Unknown to all members of the party, two small beings were flying around and noticed their direction that the group was going. Being quick, the two beings flew off to the desert and towards a mountain range that was large enough to hold many people, if they chose to be there. Into the mountain, the small duo flew until they had reached their destination.

"Hmmm." A dark form smiled evilly, "Kotake, Koume, what news with you brought with your early return?"

Before answering, the beings became their true selves: a duo of elderly, green-skinned women that were dressed in black robes, which were decorated with odd white patterns, and an odd belt held onto each of the women's waists. Each of the women were had a color for the jewels on their foreheads, their slippers and on their headbands.

"My Lord," the woman with the red color spoke first, "we bring news of Dorothy Gale's return to Oz."

"Good to hear." The voice of the dark being spoke out to the women.

"However," the blue-attired woman spoke nervously, "she has brought two others with her: a girl with hair that is the color of the sea and a lean cat with white fur."

"A small party?" The lord's voice sound intruged by the news, "Dorothy Gale must have banded them after the assassin's attack."

"So, what do we do?" The women asked, not knowing what to do about the girl that killed two witches within a week.

"Follow her and her band and see how far they go. If they sleep, report back here, and if they find a way to come here, when return and wait for further instructions."

"Yes, my Lord." The women bowed to the leader before returning to their small forms and flew off to carry the instuctions that they were given.

Watching the duo depart, the dark lord chuckled to himself as he said, "Things just became very interesting..."

Koume and Kotake traversed through the air until they reached Dorothy and her friends, who found an odd tree.

"What are those things?" Kiyone asked bluntly to her friend, who answered, "I think they're lunchpails."

"Lunchpails?" The cat looked at Dorothy with a skeptical look in his eyes, "Pails are from milk."

"A few decades ago, the milk pails were more common in use than they are today. Lunchpails are smaller than the pails for milk, and kids used to take them to school."

"Until lunchboxes were popularized." Kiyone added, finishing the explaination.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the stray cat showed his lack of interest in the history, "it's there food in them?"

"Don't know." The brunette shrugged her shoulders, "There's one way to find out."

Dorothy went to a red pail and picked it from the tree's branch. With this action, the heroine was warned by her oldest friend.

"Be careful not of pick the green ones."

"Thanks for the warning." The cat said, rolling his eyes, "Let's eat!"

"Right!" Dorothy sided with the feline, whose hungry was over-riding her jugdment.

Then, the brunette removed the plant top of the pail and looked inside to find a napkin and something wrapped in a piece of white paper.

"This looks like something." The lunch-ready female said as she pulled out the small package from the pail.

"What is it?" Asked a hungry stray cat, who was drooling from his mouth.

Dorothy opened the package and said, "It's a ham sandwich."

"What?!" The mostly white cat exclaimed in an hunger-controlled fit, "No fried chicken?"

"Take it or leave it." Kiyone giggled after seeing the cat's reaction to the lack of his preferred food, "However, I now know it's safe to eat the stuff, so I'm picking one for myself."

"Hey, pick one for me!" Begged the stray, but that action earned him the disapproving looks of the females.

"Forget it!" Kiyone said, and Dorothy added, "I thought you wanted your beauty sleep."

"Hey!" The cat moaned in his angst and pain, "Please?"

The girls looked at each other and shared a look of uncertainity. Then, they turned to the cat and asked a few questions.

"Are you want to eat people food?" Dorothy asked first, allowing an artful gleam to form in her eyes.

"Yeah," Kiyone played along, "we don't even know your name."

"Ha!" The cat announced, "Cats don't need to have names to identify themselves to each other."

"But we're not cats!" Dorothy munched on her sandwich as she spoke.

The cat took a moment to think and before long, he saw that the girls wanted something from. With this realization, the cat said, "Pretty sneaky, girls. I'll grant you that much, but that didn't go as far as you've hoped."

"Well, we've tried." Kiyone sheepishly smiled as Dorothy finished the last of her sandwich.

"However, if you feed me, you two can call me anything you two want." The cat confessed in a bold and begging manner.

After a moment, Dorothy got to her feet and said to Kiyone, "Let's hope there's a tuna fish sandwich for him."

* * *

After their meal and naming the cat, the trio resumed their terk through the dense forest. It was not long before all three agreed that they were lost.

"Where are we?" Moaned the feline, who was becoming tired from walking.

"I don't know." Dorothy confessed to the cat, "I've only been to a few places in Oz."

"Is there anything we could use to get somewhere?" Kiyone asked Dorothy, who said, "I don't think-"

The brunette gasped as if she saw something awful, but Kiyone knew it really meant that she remembered something.

"What is it, Dorothy?"

"I can't believe that I've forgotten about the silver slippers!"

"Silver slippers?" The cat tilted his head to the side.

"That's right, Muta." Dorothy called the cat by the name that she and Kiyone had given him, "They can take me and anyone with me to anywhere I want to go."

"Well, get them and use them!" Muta shouted at Dorothy.

"Back off!" The deputy pinned the cat down.

"Quit fightin'!" The brunette shouted at her friends after removing the silver slippers from her backpack, which she nearly forgot about, "It's not goin' to help us if we're at each other's throats."

Both would not admit it, but they knew Dorothy was right. So, they kept quiet until Dorothy put on her magical shoes.

"Ready to go." Dorothy announced, "Are you two ready as well?"

"As I'll ever be." Kiyone shrugged her shoulders.

"Me too, I guess." Muta announced.

"Good." The brunette said before picking up the stray cat.

"Hey! Put me down!"

The cat's reaction amused Kiyone and Dorothy, who said, "Don't worry; I won't let you fall."

"I wouldn't count on that!" Kiyone said, trying to frighten the already-nervous feline.

"Quit jokin', Kiyone." The brunette scolded her friend, "Now, hold on to me, okay?"

"Okay." The teal haired deputy shrugged her shoulders before placing a hand onto Dorothy's shoulder. Then, she voiced her worries to her close friend.

"I hope it's safe."

"I wouldn't bet on that, Chicky." The cat grinned darkly at the officer of the law, who turned her attention and possible fury towards the mocking feline.

"Okay." Dorothy breathed out, seemingly ignoring the dueling duo that were her allies. Then, she said, "The Emerald City."

"What the-" The cat exclaimed as Dorothy floated up. Kiyone, who was holding on to the girl, shouted in the mist of her great surprise, "I don't think I like this!"

Then, Dorothy and her friends disappeared from the sight from the sights of the well-hidden Kotake and Koume, who returned to their master to report once more.


	3. Chapter 3

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Three

It was few moments before the departure via the silver slippers, Kiyone, Dorothy and Muta shut their eyes; Dorothy had closed her eyes for unsure activity, but the deputy and the stray cat fearfully kept their eyes covered.

Dorothy opened her eyes first, and she was shocked at the sight. The brown haired farmgirl freed a gasp, which grabbing Kiyone's attention.

"What is it, Dorothy?" The sheriff's assisant asked before seeing the same thing that fell into Dorothy's sights: a giant city in complete ruin.

"How could this have happened?" Dorothy sunk to her kness, startling Muta when she dropped him.

"What's the big idea!?" Hissed the moody feline, apparently upset about being dropped.

"I don't believe it..." The farmgirl sadly moaned as she looked at the ruins.

Muta was confused and turned to Kiyone, asking, "Hey, what's wrong with her?"

"That's what I would like to know." Kiyone's blue eyes hardened at the girl that she called her friend. Going to her knees to be at the same level as Dorothy and asked, "Dorothy, what's wrong?"

"Everything..."

"What?" The teal-haired girl expressed her confusion to her friend.

"The Emerald City... What's happened to it...?"

"The Emerald City?" The deputy rose an eyebrow before recalling that Dorothy had told her about her adventure to Oz; The Emerald City was the capital of the land and was ruled by Tenchi, the intelligent scarecrow.

Then, Dorothy bolted from Muta and Kiyone and ran into the fallen city. Kiyone was shocked by Dorothy's behavior, but Muta was more concerned about being dropped.

"Hey, get back here, Chicky!" The stray cat shouted at Dorothy, who did not hear a single word that flew from the cat's mouth.

"Dorothy!" The deputy called out before pursuing after her old friend, "Don't! It's not safe to wonder in a place like that by yourself!"

"Hey!" Muta was getting annoyed about being ignored by the two Kansas girls, and he started off after them and shouting, "Don't leave me behind!"

Kiyone stepped over stones and rocks of the ruined city, and she saw many statues. Some of the stone figures were human, some are animal and the some of the statues were missing parts of their bodies; most of the women were missing their heads.

Then, the cop found her friend looking at two of the statues. As Kiyone carefully came closer to Dorothy and the two figures, she noticed the forms of the statues: a human and a lion.

The human statue was, at least in appearance, a human male in a fedora and a suit. He had hair that was almost shoulder-length and a long curtain beard. In his hand, a gun that looked like a six-shooter was aimed at whatever he saw and/or fighting against.

The lion stature had long wings on his back and seemingly wore jeweled armor. It was in a crounching position, ready to attack something that might have been threatening him.

Kiyone took a moment and recalled the statues being of her friends, the former tinman called Jigen and the brave, but slightly confused, lion named Cerberus.

"Dorothy, are they...?" Kiyone could not bring herself to finish her question, because she was afraid that she was right about her own assumption.

"I don't know." The farm girl confessed, unsure about her dear friends' condition, "I wish I knew."

"Well," Kiyone sighed out loud, "let's get the slippers replaced with your tennis shoes."

"You're right." The young girl nodded her head, trying to overcome her shock, "Friends shouldn't goof off like this!"

"That's the Dorothy I know!" Kiyone smiled, pleased that her friend was starting to feel better.

As Dorothy pulled her backpack off of her back, the deputy took a closer look at the Jigen statue. Upon futher examination, the young law enforcer saw this man as attractive as in "tall, dark and mysterious," especially since the hat's brim covered his eyes very well.

"HELLLLLP!" A familiar voice rang throughout the air.

"That was Muta!" Dorothy exclaimed after putting her silver slippers in her backpack.

"Let's go!" Kiyone shouted at Dorothy, who agreed by getting to her feet and running towards the cat's shout.

The teal-headed deputy was about to run after Dorothy, but a shining object grabbed her attention. Kiyone saw a gun, which was similar to the one in Jigen's stone hand, at the marksman's feet. Quickly picking up the revolver and putting it into her empty holster, the police officer ran after Dorothy, only to crash into her best friend!

"Ow!" Dorothy moaned in unison with Kiyone.

Then, Muta leaped over the collided females and shouted back at them, "Run for it!"

Kiyone was confused, but Dorothy was not; the brunette grabbed the deputy's arm, picked her up and dragged her to the same direction of the stray cat.

The farmgirl was quick on her feet and had a strong grip on her friend's arm as she dodged many things that was in her way. Dorothy was keeping sure that her new pursuers at bay, as well as keeping her friends safe.

Finally, Dorothy found Muta in a large room in a nearly destoryed building, and she dove in the room, dragging Kiyone along.

"That was close!" Sighed a relieved Kiyone.

"That was easy!" A voice rang out, grabbing the trio's attention to the room's opening, where an oddly-dressed man stood; the man looked more like a court jester than a threat, but Dorothy knew better than to judge others by their appearance, especially in the land of Oz.

The trio charged at the door, only to have it slam at their faces. Upon being trapped, Dorothy, Kiyone and Muta heard the man's laugh, which was heavily accented.

"So, that's the best that Dorothy, the fame witch killer can do? Ha! What a joke! Well, the boss would be pleased that you're caught anyway."

The trio looked at each other, asking each other who "the boss" was.

Then, the man's voice rang out once more.

"All right, boys! Move out!"

"Right, Rio!" The girls and the feline heard an all-male chorus of voices, which was followed by the sounds of departing footsteps. As the noise faded, the trapped trio started to converse among themselves.

"I can't believe it that we're trapped!" Muta moaned about his current situation.

"Either can I..." Moaned Kiyone, who agreed with the big-mouthed feline.

"I'm not sayin' anything at this point." Dorothy stated, feeling responsible for getting her friends trapped with her.

"I hope there's some mice around here to eat." The feline decided to go hunting; he needed something to keep his mind from worrying about being trapped by Rio and his allies.

Muta looked around the floor for any sign of small life forms wondering in the ruins that was uneffected by the dark spell that turned anyone into stone. As he passed the second pillar, he saw a shoe that looked like a Mary-Jane, and it had a foot in it. Looking up, Muta saw the owner of the foot, which looked like a young woman wearing black dress with red hair, which was in a pageboy style with a black headband in it. The oddest thing about the girl was her eyes, which were as black as her attire and completely lifeless.

"Hey, Chickys..." The cat nervously backed from the lifeless female.

The girls, who were trying to think of a way to escape from their newly-formed prison, turned their attention to the stray cat, only to find the same girl that Muta had found himself.

"What is that?" Kiyone asked Dorothy, who said, "I don't know; I've never seen her before."

"Well, that makes me feel better!" Muta hissed at the bruette, who responded with a retrot of her own.

"Hey, I've only been in Oz one time. Beside, I didn't assume that you knew every alley cat in Kansas when I first saw you."

The cat tried to counter the comment, but he was not able to, because Dorothy was right.

"Damn!" Muta cursed out.

Kiyone smiled at her friend, pleased that she was able to stand up for herself. Also, she maintained a calm appearance when the stray cat cussed out of frustration.

Dorothy placed her hand over her mouth, trying not to laughed at the cat, when she noticed something hanging around the lifeless girl's neck. Taking a closer look, the farmgirl saw a necklace that was shaped like a bird holding a key in its talons.

"What is it?" Kiyone asked as she noticed her friend's sudden change of bahavior.

"I'm not sure." The brown haired girl said as she started to circle the statue-girl, "I need a better look."

Dorothy went behind the red-head girl and saw three holes on the woman's back: one hole was on the back of the neck, the second hole was on the higher part of the back, and the third was on the lower back. This was quite the discovery to Dorothy.

"You guys aren't gonna believed this!" The brunette announced to her friends, who went to where Dorothy was at.

"Whoa!" The deputy exclaimed upon saying the odd holes.

"That's new." Muta bluntly stated out loud.

Then, an idea formed in Dorothy's mind. In a quick series of movements, the farmgirl managed to remove the bird necklace without breaking the chain.

"Good moves." The teal haired deputy was impressed with Dorothy's quick and careful work.

"Yeah," Barked the stray, "but does it do anything?"

"I'm about to find out for us." The brunette eyed the bird for a moment and looked at key's end and saw that the key that was part of the necklace was really a key. With an idea, Dorothy aimed the key into the hole in the back of the neck. After a moment of trail and error, Dorothy managed to turned the key and did not stop turning it until she could not turn it anymore, which told her to remove the key from the woman's neck.

A moment passed as no one spoke a word, not knowing what was going to happen.

"Who is there?" A robotic voice rang out, startling the two females and Muta, "Please, show yourself."

Dorothy took a gulp of her saliva before obeying the voice. Being careful, the farmgirl stepped in front of the statue-like girl. Summoning her courage, she asked, "Did you say something?"

The head moved to see Dorothy, and the red-headed girl answered, "Yes."

Dorothy was shocked about the robot-like woman, whose first lacked any form of emotional expression. Kiyone and Muta was also shocked about the woman's head suddenly moving.

"Forgive me, but I must insist that you finish winding me up; I must be able to move if I am to do my functions." The woman said in an indifferent tone.

"Uh... Sure?" Dorothy agreed before going behind the girl and asked her friends what should she do.

"I don't have any idea." Her friend confessed before suggesting, "Do as she says, I guess."

"What!?" Muta hissed at the deputy, "We don't know this girl!"

"Maybe she could help us escape from here." Kiyone pointed out the possible chance with the odd female.

Looking around the room, Dorothy said as she pointed a thumb at the girl, "Now, with what just happened, I'd take my chances with this one."

Dorothy was quick with the key and of turning it in the remaining holes.

Once Dorothy was done with her work, the black-claded female checked herself by moving her fingers, hands, arms, legs, ankles and neck. After examining herself, she turned to the trio and spoke out her gratitude.

"Thank you for helping me. I am called Nightingale."

"You're welcome." Dorothy replied to the woman that was emotionless, "This is Kiyone Makibi, deputy of Kansas."

"Hi." The teal haired woman waved at Nightingale nervously as Dorothy continued with the introductions.

"The cat is Muta."

"Don't expect me to help ya on anything." The white cat spoke up his lack of interest in the female, in spite of the fact that he was still shakened by Nightingale's sudden movements.

"And I'm Dorothy..."

"You are Dorothy Gale from Kansas, and the same one who killed two witches within a single week." The red haired woman stated, lacking any emotion in her face and voice.

"Yeah." The young farmgirl sighed out, not liking being remembered from killing two people, even if they were evil people, and she knew that the witches' deaths were accidents.

The woman known as Nightingale spoke once more, saying, "I was told to wait for you by His Majesty, King Tenchi."

"What!?" Dorothy was shocked about the news, "Tenchi told you to wait for me?!"

"Maybe I should explain." The red headed woman said before she gave her explaination to Dorothy.

"Okay." Dorothy replied with her friends trying to calm her.

"I was built by Washu Hakubi II, the Wizard of Oz sometime before your arrival to Oz. The whole situation started when King Tenchi received a note that the writer had demanded his complete and unconditional surrender, which enraged Lord Jigen and Lord Cerberus greatly. Washu was upset about the note for the reasons of both a grown loyality and the postponement of her journey to find the rightful hier of Oz and the Emerald City.

"I assisted with the building the precautions of the incoming attack, however the one that sent the note was a master wizard, and he caused a spell onto me. I was forced to steal one of the emeralds that protect the city from evil invaders. This caused the evil attacker to succed in taking over the city. King Tenchi, who realized that I was being used, forgave me and instrusted me to await for your arrival."

A moment passed as Dorothy soaked in the news. Kiyone wanted to console her dear friend, but she did not know how. Muta, however, was more interested in looking for something to eat than in Dorothy's wellbeing.

"This isn't looking good at all." The teal haired female spoke out. Then, an idea struck her, causing her to turn to Nightingale and asked, "How did you helped out with the defenses?"

"I helped with carrying some of the heavier equipment." The emotionless robot replied bluntly.

"The heavier equipment, huh..." The deputy smiled cunningly, which Dorothy noticed with a quick glance.

"What are you up to, Kiyone?"

"You'll see..." The law enforcer kept her grin on her face before turning to Nightingale and inquiried, "Can you help us move something very heavy, please?"

"What are you talking about?" Nightingale asked in response to the question.

"Let me show you." Kiyone directed the robotic woman to the blocked opening.

The brunette and the cat followed the first two and listened to what Kiyone was saying.

"A bunch of creeps pushed this door, and now we're stuck in here. Can you move it for us?"

Nightingale said nothing, but she took action. Placing a pair of hands onto the blockage, the robot woman pushed the rock with hardly any effort. Dorothy, Muta, and even Kiyone was shocked by the strength of Nightingale, who stepped out of the room.

"Are you and your friends coming, Dorothy?" The black-wearing woman asked without looking back at the trio.

"Comin'..." Dorothy answered meekly before coming after Nightingale, followed by Kiyone and Muta.

Once the group were together, they started off again, going deeper into the ruined city. However, they were being followed, which was noticed by Nightingale.

"Someone is following us."

The other three looked and saw the man, known as Rio, looking upset about the trio's escape from his trap.

"How did you escape from that room?!" The tan man shouted at Dorothy, causing his pompadour to bounce with his body's movement.

"Just lucky, I guess." The farmgirl replied with a smug grin on her face.

This comment outraged the funny man, who shouted out, "Dead Enders! Get over here!"

The cry summoned a large group of men, whom were around the man's age. Seeing the men caused Dorothy's confident smile to disappear.

"I don't think this is goin' to end well." Dorothy said as she retreated behind Kiyone, who said, "You can say that again."

"They are no threat." Nightingale announced, earning the dumbfounded expressions of the human females and Muta as well as the fury of Rio and the Dead Enders.

"That does it!" Rio roared at the females, "Now, you lot face the wrath of the Dead Enders!"

On cue, the followers of Rio dove after the foursome. Dorothy, Kiyone and Muta ran off to hide, but Nightingale stayed willingly behind and faced the stampeding gang.

"Nightingale!" Kiyone shout out to the robot, "Get outta there!"

It was too late for Nightingale to change her mind as the group caught up to the red haired woman.

The first member of the Dead Enders, a man with visible muscles, grabbed Nightingale's right arm. However, the man was flipped over to his back, and he was in pain at that time.

"Apache!" One of the Dead Enders, a man wearing a black jacket, "You'll pay for that, you bitch!"

"Go get her, Space Shot!" A yellow-hooded boy shouted in cheer for the next attacker's victory.

The man, known as Space Shot, charged at Nightingale with a knife aimed at the red-headed robot, only to cut the dress's cloth of Nightingale's attire.

"What!?" The Dead Enders exclaimed, shocked to see that the damage as that minial. To add insult to injury, the knife that was used against Nightingale snapped into two pieces.

"Maybe I should have introduced myself," the robotic girl spoke up, "my name is Nightingale, a creation of the Wizard of Oz."

The hooded boy turned to another member of the group, who was wearing a red wool cap, and asked, "Is it true, Muscle Boy?"

"I don't know, Junk Food, but she is dangerous either is she or not."

Then, a huge man with a red tattoo on his stomach charged at Nightingale, who received the full impact of the ram and moved only a few inches from where she stood.

"Well," the large man gulped in fear of what was to happen next, "it went so much better in my head."

Nightingale looked at the bald brute, who ran off in fear of the robotic female, who said, "That was not expected."

"Ball Boy's messed it up again." Space Shot said, knowing that he was wrong to have said it, but it was the only thing that would leave his mouth.

"Oh boy..." Kiyone said after watching Ball Boy's hasty retreat from Nightingale, "These guys seem to be nothing more than a gang of thugs."

"Yeah," agreed Muta, who was watching the fight with the human females, "I already knew that."

Then, Rio sneaked up behind the trio, and when he got the chance, he pulled out a wooden blade and swung at the three. Dorothy noticed the leader of the Dead Enders and his attack, but it was too late to escape the swing. However, luck sided with Dorothy for she had the hairtie that Zeniba had enchanted when she arrived to Oz the first time. The wooden sword never landed on the farmgirl, but Zeniba's spell repelled the weapon and it owner, sending them into the air for a few moments.

"Whoa!" The stray cat exclaimed in awe of the events that he watched at the sideline, "Looks like his not getting up anytime soon."

Kiyone nodded in agreement with Muta when she looked at Nightingale and yelled at her, "Let's get going!"

"Of course." The robot agreed, knowing that Kiyone was right, and followed the trio.

The reformed foursome ran off, while the Dead Enders tended to their fallen leader's body.


	4. Chapter 4

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Four

After their escape from the Dead Enders and their ambush, Dorothy, Kiyone, Muta and Nightingale managed to find a resting place. They took some time to breath and talked about their situation.

"What's their problem?" Kiyone asked Dorothy, who shrugged her shoulders as she answered, "I don't know? How about askin' Nightingale?"

"Good idea." Muta agreed.

However, the robotic female heard the suggestion of the trio and responded to them.

"The Dead Enders must be the royal guards, but I do not know fully about them to be completely sure. Rio was the name of the head of the guards, which must be the reason why all of the others were so obeident and loyal to him."

"This is not what I wanted to hear!" Kiyone announced to her friends and allies.

"I agree," Dorothy mused at the deputy's words, "but she has been 'asleep' for a while."

"Asleep?" The lean cat exclaimed, "She's a toy!"

"I am a robot." Nightingale emotionlessly protested against the cat's words, "I am designed to possesing knowledge and the ability to speak and interact with other people and beings. I also can be a bodyguard for anyone that I am assigned to by my creator."

"Are you mad?" Snickered Muta, wanting to get a rise out of the stone-faced woman, but this backfired as Nightingale gave her response.

"I lack emotions, since I was created, not born."

A frown appeared on the feline's face as he got upset and went off in a huff.

"Poor Muta." The brunette said to the teal haired female, who said, "He kinda desevred that for trying to get Nightingale upset."

Dorothy could not help herself from feeling sorry for her furry ally, but she did agree with Kiyone when it came to the cat's attempt to annoy the robot woman.

Then, all three females heard an odd sound in the air: music.

"Who's playin' music in the ruins?" Dorothy asked as she looked around the for the sound's origins.

"I don't know." Kiyone joined in the search for the source of the music.

"It is coming for over there." Nightingale pointed at a direction in the ruins.

"Let's get goin' then," Dorothy announced, "Whatever's playin' that music probably not comin' to us."

The two females agreed with a nod in each their own way, and followed the farmgirl to the source of the oddly-placed music.

As they ran, the trio of females saw a still-standing tower in a clearing in the heart of the ruined city. Soon, they reached the door to the tower's interior.

"Should we go in there?" Kiyone asked the companions, whom each had their own answer.

"I don't know." Dorothy expressed her face in a thoughtful manner.

"It may be a wise decision to stay out of the tower." Nightingale analyzed the chooses that were presented to the trio, "However, we would not find out who or what was making the music."

"I choose "don't enter.'" Muta's voice rang out to the females.

"Muta?" Dorothy turned to where the cat was hiding at under some rocks, "What's the matter with the tower to you?"

The cat kept his distance from the tower as he answered the question.

"Simple: something's not wrong about that place. I can feel it in my wiskers!"

The human females looked at each other in confusion, concerned about the cat's refusal to enter the building.

* * *

Back in the mountain, the twin witches reported back to their lord, who was very interested in the words of the old women.

"So, Dorothy's band has returned to the Emerald City." The dark man smiled grimly.

"My Lord, what about the girl?" The sisters asked in unison to their master, who answered the inquiry.

"Simple: Nehelenia will take care of them."

The twin witches became paler upon hearing the name of Nehelenia.

"Her?" The red witch asked the dark lord, and her twin added to the question, "Do you think Dorothy would get near her?"

"I believe she would," the master responded to the questions, "due to her nature with witches."

The twins looked at each other with a questionable expression on their faces, knowing that their master knew what he was talking about; after all, Nehelenia was a powerful being in her own right. Also in the state of chaos that city, if not in the girl's mind, was enough to confuse the heroine to trust the witch, if their master was right.

* * *

Back at the ruins of the Emerald City, Dorothy was listening to Muta's words of warning, which was unexpected by both humans.

"Don't go in there, Chickys! There's something really bad in there, and I don't wanna be the fool that finds out what that is!"

"What are you talking about?" Kiyone spoke to cat as she and Nightingale went to the farmgirl's side.

"I don't know how to explain it," the cat confessed to the females, "but I know if you go in there, there's a chance you'll never get out!"

Dorothy always knew that animals had a sense that often went beyond the normal understanding of humans, but Dorothy wanted to know what was going on around the land of Oz.

"I'm going in." The young brunette announced.

"WHAT!?" Muta shouted at Dorothy, "Didn't you heard the part that you might not come back out!?"

"I did," the brunette smiled at the cat, "but there's a chance that I can also get out."

"I wouldn't take that chance!" Muta frowned at the girl's choose to enter the tower.

"Well, I would." Dorothy said as she turned to the tower with the music flowing out of it.

Kiyone was expressive with her concern about her friend. Thinking quickly, the deputy turned to the robot and asked her a question.

"Nightingale, can you follow Dorothy and make sure that she stays out of trouble?"

"Of course," the robot anwsered in her normal, emotionless voice, "I was instructed by King Tenchi to follow Dorothy due to her ability of attracting trouble."

"Why am I not surprised?" The deputy sighed out, knowing that Dorothy had that gift for trouble long before the adventure to Oz.

"Then, let's go, Nightingale." Dorothy called out to the robot, who followed the farmgirl.

"I'll be out here with Muta." Kiyone announced, which became a source of relief to the stray cat.

Dorothy made her way to the door that led to the inside of the tower, when Kiyone recalled something and ran to her friend.

"Wait a minute!" Dorothy heard the officer's call and turned to her.

"What is it, Kiyone?"

At that moment, Kiyone pulled out and gave the farmgirl the revolver that the deputy had found earlier that day.

"Where did you-?" Dorothy started to ask, but Kiyone was quick to answer, saying, "I found it at Jigen's feet. I thought it would be useful to us, so I grabbed it.

A smile filled with gratitude graced Dorothy's slightly tanned face as she said, "Thanks, Kiyone."

"Not a problem." The law enforcer smiled back before she added, "Be careful in there, okay?"

"What do you think I am? Stupid?" Dorothy joked at her friend, who responded by saying, "Not stupid, but a frequent risk-taker."

"No agurement there." The farmgirl shrugged her shoulders.

Then, the duo that was made up of Dorothy and Nightingale opened the door and entered the tower, while Kiyone and Muta waited outside for their friends' return.

Once inside, Dorothy and Nightingale heard the music echo throughout the darkened hallway, which reminded the brunette farmgirl of the Vampire-Witch of the West's castle.

"I don't like the looks of this place." Dorothy said, shaking from the though of the evil's witch's residence before her death.

"But if we do not move on, we may never find out who is still here in the Emerald City." Nightingale emotionlessly reminded Dorothy of the reason why they were in the tower in the first place.

"Right." The brunette agreed before she continued on with the robot woman following right behind her.

As they went deeper into the tower's interior, the music grew louder and louder, which was odd to Dorothy that anyone would be playing the same song for a long time. However, she reminded herself that she was in Oz, a land of witches and odd creatures, and someone playing the same tone for a while was probably something that was somewhat common in that land.

Then, she and her robotic ally saw a mirror at the end of the long hallway, seeing their reflections.

"Looks like that the end of the trail." The organic female shrugged her shoulders.

"But what about the music?" Nightingale asked Dorothy, who said in response, "You're right, but I don't see anyway to open it."

"Why not push the mirror?"

"Good idea."

Then, Dorothy went to the mirror and placed a shoulder onto the mirror, which moved with some difficultly at first. Then, the looking glass passageway allowed great ease in the turn, which nearly caused Dorothy to lose her balance.

"Oh!" A woman's voice rang thoughout the room that the girl entered, "Company; it's been awhile since I've had any guests."

Looking around the room, which was wall-to-wall with mirrors, Dorothy saw, in the middle of the room, a fancy-looking couch and its owner, who was sitting on it with a lyre in her pale hands.

"Oh!" Dorothy quickly stood up and dusted herself off, "I'm sorry if I'm intrudin' on you or anythin' like that!"

"You're not." The dark haired woman smiled crypticly at the farmgirl as she put her small, harp-like instrument down.

Then, she remembered her manners, and she introduce herself to the woman.

"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas."

Then, she remembered Nightingale and introduced the robot, who had followed her through the mirror door, saying, "This is my friend, Nightingale."

The woman's dark-green and yellow dress seem to speak in unison with the woman, who also introduced herself.

"I am Nehelenia, the witch that resides here."

"The witch that resides here?" The girl repeated under her breath, remembering what Muta had said about what was in the tower.

"Is something wrong, Miss Gale?" The woman, who called herself Nehelenia, asked the farmgirl.

"Nothing."

The woman's mysterious grin grew wider as she said, "Good."

Then, the images of the woman started moving in the mirrors, shocking Dorothy greatly.

"Don't worry about them," Nehelenia said, still grinning darkly at Dorothy, "they won't harm you unless I tell them to."

"That good to hear." Dorothy said nervously to the pale woman, not sure that the witch was being honest.

"Now, may I ask a question, Miss Gale?"

"Sure." The brunette answered.

"Do you think that I'm beautiful?"

Unsure and surprised by the question, Dorothy gave her honest answer.

"I guess you are."

"What do you mean?" The witch asked angrly at the girl.

"Well," Dorothy confessed, "I never was a judge of beauty."

Apparently insulted by the answer and explaination, Nehelenia said, "I don't like when people say stupid things like that."

"There's no reason to get mad!" Dorothy spoke in defense of herself, "I was only giving my honest opinion!".

Then, the mirror images, looking just as upset about Dorothy's words, pulled themselves from their respective mirrors and flew at the farmgirl and the robot woman.

"Wait a mintue!" Dorothy shouted out.

Nightingale attempted to stop the reflections, but one of them touched the keyhole that was at the back of robot's neck, instantly shutting the metal maiden down.

"Hey!" Dorothy managed to shout out before her world went black.


	5. Chapter 5

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Five

Outside, Muta and Kiyone was waiting with great worry, in Kiyone's case, for the return of the two friends that entered the tower.

"What's going on in there?" Kiyone groaned at being in her annoyance of not knowing what was happening inside.

"You're too worried about fools that are tending where angel's wouldn't be dumb enough to go." Muta scoffed at the concerns of the deputy, "Besides-" A shivering noise escaped from the cat in mid-sentense, causing Kiyone to go to the cat's aid.

"Muta, are you okay?"

"I am, Chicky." The stray cat replied after recovering from his shivering episode, "It's just I've sensed a spell from a witch."

"A spell from a witch?" The teal-haired girl asked, not knowing of what to say in response.

"Yeah," the cat nodded to Kiyone, "and it's just like the one that Dorothy used with those slippers of her's."

"Are you sure?"

"Hey," Muta threw a dirty look at the lone female human, "there's a reason that cats are seen as the usual familiars of witches and not dogs."

Kiyone wanted to disagree with the feline, but she knew that she could not, because he was right. Then, she asked, "What exactly happened?"

"I'm not a seer!" The cat growled at the officer of the law of Kansas, "All I know is that Dorothy's gotten herself in trouble."

"What else is new there?" The friend of Dorothy announced, knowing that the farm girl usually found a way to get herself in trouble.

"Then, we can leave." Muta purred, hoping that the officer would join him.

"No."

The lean cat halted in his tracks, turned around and asked in a demanding tone of voice, "Why?"

"Because Dorothy and Nightingale are still in there."

"How does that matter to me?"

Kiyone was outraged at the cat's lack of concern for anyone but himself; the officer wanted to do something horrible to the lazy cat, but she managed to restrain herself from harming Muta by turing away from him.

Then, an idea formed in the teal-haired woman's mind, which caused a sly smile to form on her face.

"Well, that's too bad, because Dorothy was the one with the lunch pails in her backpack."

Upon hearing this, Muta whipped his head towards Kiyone with a hungry look in his eyes. Then, the cat's eyes slited to smugly.

"Oh ho, you're a sneaky one; getting me through my stomach is a good idea." Then, a deep sigh came as he said, "I'll help you out, however we're going to wait."

"Why?!" Kiyone asked the cat, who answered flatly.

"Because the witch is awake, and if we go in there, we'll end up like Dorothy and Nightingale."

"So, when does the witch sleep?" Kiyone asked her only ally.

"I don't have the answer to that," Muta spoke up, "but she's got to sleep sometime."

"And while we wait, we plan." Kiyone announced, much to Muta's displeasure.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dorothy was waking up after the attack on her by Nehelenia, who was insulted by Dorothy's answer earlier.

"Whoa!" The farm girl moaned as she sat up, "That woman's got a nasty temper."

"You can say that again." A friendly-sounding voice rang out to Dorothy, who responded by saying, "Who's that?"

The answer came quickly.

"I'm... I'm... Oh, yeah! I've forgotten that I'm not suppose to talk at all."

"Really?" Dorothy asked as she went to her feet, "How are you're not suppose to talk if you have a name? Do you have one?"

"Well, my mother did name me, even though she only built me to scare Nehelenia." The voice replied in a thoughtful manner.

"Your mother?" Dorothy was confused for a moment, but then she remembered that thing's were not as it seemed in the land of Oz. Recalling that bit of information, the brunette asked, "Where are ya?"

"Why, I'm over here."

Following the direction of the voice, Dorothy found the owner of the voice, who caused the young girl to guess from shock.

The owner of the voice was a pumpkin that had blue eyes painted on, a small twig placed in as a nose and a mouth craved under the twig. The head had hair, which was made of long pieces of straw and hay.

Are you the one that's been callin' out to me?" The famed witch killer asked the 'head,' who smiled as it answered, "Yes, I am."

The response frightened the human girl, who noticed a gathering of sticks and clothing nearby, close where the 'head' was.

"May I ask you a question, Miss?" The head asked in a woman's voice.

"Sure."

"Is there any spoilage on my head?"

Confused by the question, Dorothy managed to answer the question of the 'head.'

"None that I can see."

"That's good to hear," the 'head' said with a wide smile on her face, "because I don't want to see the world if I'm starting to rot."

"Well, that makes some sense." Dorothy said, hoping that she was saying the correct thing to say as she recalled what had happened the last time

Then, the pumpkin 'head' asked, "Can you help me put myself back together?"

A little taken aback, the farm girl said, "Sure. Can you tell what to do first?"

"That's easy!" The 'head' said, "Put my head to my neck."

"All right." Dorothy nodded to the female-like 'head.'

Being very careful not to harm the pumpkin, Dorothy picked up the 'head' and looked at what looked like a neck, which she did find. Upon discovery the 'body,' the female reattached the 'head' with the 'body.'

"Oh, thank you very much, Miss!" The being said to Dorothy, "Can you find my arms?"

"Of course."

Then, Dorothy pulled out a 'limb,' only to be told that she had pulled one of the being's legs. Thankfully, that the 'female' was understanding and willing to point to where the arms were.

"Sorry about that!" The farm girl replaced the limb she had in her hands with the correct one.

"That's okay." The pumpkin-headed being said, "If I were you, I would have thought the same thing."

"Really?" The farm girl smiled as she found some rope to tie the arm to the body.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that!" The pumpkin-headed being said with a smlie on its face.

"What are you-?" Dorothy asked, but the being said, "I'll show ya! Just get my arm into my sleeve."

"Okay..." The brown-haired girl complied before asking where did the arm go.

The odd being was kind in its response and directions of placement as Dorothy aided the fruit and wood being in its reconstrution. Once the arm was in the pumpkin-headed being, it came to life and grabbed it twin, putting it in its place. Following in the other arm's placement, the legs were grabbed and put in their places.

"What happened to ya?" Dorothy asked the now-tall being, who was quick to answer.

"Oh! Well, it happened after I was created by my Mama."

"Your Mama?" Dorothy asked, curious about the being's history.

"Uh-huh," the pumpkin-headed being nodded to the girl, "my Mama was the very first thing I've ever saw in my life. Although, I thought it was weird that she was holding a stick with some liquid on it."

"Liquid?" Dorothy repeated, but then she realized that the liquid that the being mentioned was paint.

"Yeah," the tall being said in conformation, "but after I saw her, Mama used some rope to hang me from the ceiling in an attempt to scare Nehelenia."

"Really?!" Dorothy was truly taken aback upon hearing the statement as the being responded to the gasped.

"Yes, but when Mama's plan happened, Nehelenia didn't get scare; she got mad, and she used her wand at me. However, she brought me to live."

"Whoa!" The farmgirl exclaimed meekly.

"Yeah, and then she got really mad and blew me to pieces."

"That mad?"

"Uh-huh." The pumpkin-headed being said as it resumed its tale, "And then, she threated to turn me into pumpkin pie. However, it's been a while since then."

"How long is a 'while?'" Dorothy asked the being, who answered, "Now, I think that was about twenty to thirty heads ago."

"What do you mean?" Dorothy added on the question.

"Well, due to Nehelenia's spell, it's made my head more resistant from getting spoiled."

"Then, who's been replacing your head?" Dorothy asked, dispite the feeling of knowing the answer already.

"My Mama; she's been taking good care of me, although she didn't put me back together. She even gave me a name."

"And that would be?"

"It's Mihoshi."

"Mihoshi?" Dorothy was confused about the name, but then she remembered that she was in Oz, where things were not as it seemed to be.

"Uh-huh," the being nodded at the brunette, "Mama didn't not want me to be nameless."

"Okay, Mihoshi," Dorothy spoke up, "when was the last time you saw your Mama?"

"It was a few days ago," Mihoshi answered bluntly, "when Nehelenia decided to move to the Emerald City, but Mama told me that only the good of heart could enter the city."

"Only as long as the Magic Emeralds were in the city." Dorothy added as she recall Nightingale's story.

"Mama had mentioned that once or twice." The being thoughtfully responded to the statement.

"Well, I- Ow!" Dorothy was about to say something about the situation she was in, but she stubbed her toe on something hard.

"Oh!" Mihoshi, the pumpkin-headed being, went to Dorothy's side and asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay." The farm girl hopped a little before she added, "What was that?"

"Oh, that was Helios."

"Helios?" Dorothy asked as she looked at the thing that she had hit with her toe.

The thing, which was a stone statue, had the appearance of a young male wearing clothes that were similar to those of the clergy and curly hair. The oddest part about the statue was there was something sticking out of the forehead, which reminded Dorothy of a stump after a tree had been cut down.

"That's Helios?" Dorothy inquiried at the stick and fruit being, who nodded as it answered.

"Yes, Mama told me his name after I'd asked her about him. Also, Mama told me that he was the alicorn people, but I have no idea what an alicorn is."

"Me neither." The brunette responded, and then she asked, "Did your Mama tell you what had happened to him?"

"Yes. Mama told me that Nehelenia took his horn and claimed it as her wand. When she took that horn, she turned him into stone to keep the magic in the wand."

"That's- that's- despicable! Outrageous! Not to mention wrong on some many levels!" A furious Dorothy managed to say without cursing out her intense hatred towards the witch.

"Wow!" Mihoshi looked at the farm girl in awe, "I've never seen anyone with a face that red before!"

"Wait 'til I get my hands around that hag's neck!" Dorothy hissed in her fury.

"Don't do that!" The being made of plants-related items pleaded to the girl, "If you try to do that, she'll kill you!"

Dorothy hissed not happy about being told the truth at that point, but she knew that Mihoshi was right. Taking in a deep breath, the farm girl asked, "Then, is there a way to save Helios?"

"Yes..." Mihoshi nodded nervously, but the key for that is always on Nehelenia's person."

"Well..." Dorothy started to ponder about how to get the key without getting caught by the witch that imprisoned her in the tower. Then, she concevied her plan.

"Aha! I've got it!"

"What?" Mihoshi asked, having a strong feeling about what Dorothy was up to.

"I came up with a plan, but I need to know just a few things." The farm girl announced to the being, who moaned, who was fearful for the safety of Dorothy and herself.


	6. Chapter 6

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Six

Sometime after sunset, Kiyone and Muta were still waiting outside. Kiyone used the time to poilsh her gun and making sure it was ready to be used, while Muta took several naps to "conserve his energy." The waiting ended, when Muta woke up and looked at the tower.

"It's time..." The skinny feline announced, which caused Kiyone to check her weapon and said, "Let's go then."

The small team of two went to the door of the tower and carefully opened it, trying not to wake up the witch that was in the tower. As they made their way in the darken hall, Muta used his natural night vision to help Kiyone to get through the long hall.

"Hey," Muta said in a hush tone, "I think I'm seeing Nightingale."

"How are you sure?" The blind Kiyone asked the cat, who answered with a warning hiss and said, "I've got night vision, Chicky, and I can tell if it's that robot or not."

Kiyone was not very sure, but she had to trust him; he was her only eyes in the darkness, and Muta was only helping due to the fact that he could get a free meal.

"Is Nightingale moving?" The deputy asked the lean feline.

"No, just a metal statue."

"Do you see Dorothy?"

"Not a sign."

"Damn!" The law enforcer hissed under her breath, feeling like a failure for not being able to find her best friend.

Then, the mirror-door, which the motionless Nightingale was standing in front of, opened, causing Kiyone to pull out her weapon, which was aimed at the door and Muta to hide behind the gun-wielding female.

"Kiyone?" A familiar voice rang out to the duo, "Muta?"

"Dorothy?" The two allies asked as the farm girl appeared before them.

Muta was wary for a moment, but he was the first to greet the girl, saying, "Good to see ya, Chicky."

"Same to you two." Dorothy smiled in a relief that was evident on her face.

"What happened to you?" Kiyone asked her long-time friend, who was quick to say, "I'll tell you later. Now, we have bigger problems than we thought."

"What are you talking about?" The stray cat asked the brunette, who also was quick in winding up Nightingale's gears.

"Well, we need to get out of here and soon." Mihoshi replied as the gourd-headed being poked her head out of the door, startling the deputy sheriff from Kansas and the mostly white stray cat.

"Whoa!"

"Shh!" Dorothy hushed the spooked duo before she introduced the composed being to her friends.

"Guys, this is Mihoshi, a prisoner of Nehelenia, although Nehelenia never knew exactly. Mihoshi, these are my friends, Kiyone and Muta, and the woman, whose gears I'm turnin' right now, is Nightingale."

"Nice to meet you." Mihoshi smiled at the still-spooked duo, who nervously responded back, "Hi."

"What has happened?" Nightingale's voice echoed into the ears of the group, who turned to the robotic woman, as she added, "Where is the woman that was here earlier, and all of those copies that belonged to her?"

This greatly confused the deputy and the cat, who was the first to ask, "You're talking about the witch, right?"

"Yep." Dorothy answered bluntly, before she spoke again, "You guys follow Mihoshi up the stairs, and I'll catch up with you later."

With that said, the farm girl from Kansas dashed off through the mirror-door, went to the other side of the room of mirror and opened at mirror, which also was a door.

"What was that all about?" Muta asked the pumpkin-headed "woman," who said, "She going to get Nelhelenia's wand, in hopes of reviving another prisoner."

"That girl's nuts!" The stray cat announced to the other females, who could not help themselves from agreeing with him.

As the foursome went to the part of the tower that Dorothy, Mihoshi and the still-pertified Helios was held at, Dorothy took on the brave task of retrieving Helios's severed horn, which Nelhelenia kept under a locked mirror-like cabinet, and the key to that lock was tied to the dark-haired witch's wrist, whenever she went to bed for the night.

As Dorothy found herself in Nelhelenia's bed chamber, she saw the resting witch in a regal-looking nightdress of red and gold, which was complete with a scarf that wrapped up her long dark blue hair. On the left wrist of the witch's left hand, there was a piece of string that was long enough to fit her hand and hold on to the ruby key that was held on by a knot.

Upon seeing the knot on the red key, Dorothy knew that trying to remove the knot from the key was not an option, since removing the key from the string would awaken the witch from her slumber. So, Dorothy started to think of another plan on how to obtain the ruby key from Nelhelenia without waking her up.

Then, Dorothy noticed something about the string itself; it was knotted to the ruby-red key in a very complexed knot, but the knot that kept it on the witch's wrist was very simple. This realization gave Dorothy what she needed, and she also needed to be extremely careful, if she needed to be successful in getting the ruby key.

As quietly and cautiously as she could, Dorothy crept up to the green-claded bed and went to the left side of the bed. The farmgirl saw that the simple knot was facing towards the pillow; a good sign to Dorothy, as she started untying the knot.

Sensing something on her wrist, Nehelenia stirred in her sleep, causing Dorothy to duck down, which the witch turned to her right side. The witch had failed to realize that the string and the key was no longer on her wrist, but Dorothy did, as she peered over the bed and saw the key that was still attached to the string by a knot was on the left side of the bed.

Quickly, the brunette farm girl grabbed the ruby key, crept away from the bed and out of the chamber and started off to her next location: the mirror-cabinet that held Helios's golden horn. Besides, she was not planning to see how angry Nelhelenia can get.

Soon, Dorothy found herself in the hall of mirrors that Mihoshi had told her about before their escape, which included that all of the mirrors were cabinets and one of then was one the that Helios's horn was in, but the constructed being was not sure which cabinet was the one that held the horn of Helios. The brunette, however, was not discouraged as she would search for the horn, even if she had to open every cabinet in the hall of mirrors.

As she reached the first mirrior-cabinet, Dorothy felt a hand on her shoulder, which caused her to turn around, but she saw no one behind her. This confused the farm girl greatly, when she felt a hand on each of her shoulders, which felt like they were grabbing her, and the invisible hands forced her to turn around to face the mirrior again, but this time, Dorothy saw that there was someone else in the mirror, standing by her reflection. Dorothy looked at where the person would be standing at, but there was no one there.

"Okay..." Dorothy said in her confusion as she turned back to the mirror, "What's goin' on around here?"

Then, she saw the girl in the mirror. The girl had teal hair that was a few tints from Kiyone's green-blue hair color, which was in pig-tails that was meant for a young child, pink-red eyes that reminded the farm girl of a rabbit that she had as a pet a few years ago and some freckles on her face, which was had some dirt and grime on it. Also, the brown dress the girl in the mirror was wearing was worn, tattered and dirty from years of use, and it was very short and had patches and stitches that showed that that dress was the only thing that the teal-haired female had to wear ever since she was young.

"I am Sasami," the young woman in the mirror replied to Dorothy's question, "a servant of Nelhelenia, or I was her servant until I tried to escape her by taking her ruby key in an attempt to steal her wand. However, I've made the mistake of failing to realize that she caused a spell on the hall of mirrors and the wand, which prevented her from being imprisoned in a mirror if she used the key on the cabinet that held Helios's horn."

"And what happened to you is the result of gettin' the wrong one?" Dorothy asked the ex-servant of Nelhelenia, who said, "Yes, which lead to my other mistake of failing to see which cabinet the horn was held in."

"That's gotta be worse than a bank fakin' a foreclosure on your farm." The farm girl said as she scratched the back of her head.

"I don't know about that." Sasami responded to the analogy, before saying, "However, I do know where the horn is hidden in."

"Then, led the way." Dorothy said with a smile.

Then, the girl from Kansas felt a pull on her left wrist, dragging her as the farm girl tried to stay on her feet.

Sasami was pulling Dorothy's reflection, guilding, if not dragging, her to the location of the golden wand. Soon, the servant girl stopped, sending Dorothy to the floor.

"Ow!" The farm girl rubbed her sore nose, since she fell on it.

"Are you all right?" The trapped female asked the rising girl, who said, "After a few minutes."

Then, Dorothy looked at the mirror she was standing in front of, and she saw that Sasami was looking at the end of the hall where Dorothy had entered earlier.

"What's wrong, Sasami?" The bruette asked the teal-haired servant girl, who turned to her with a worried look on her face and answered.

"I am concerned about Nelhelenia coming here to find us."

"Don't worry about it." Dorothy said, expressing a lack of concern about the witch, "Witches, like her, tend to scream when they find out when they were robbed."

"I hope that's true." Sasami said, still unsure about Dorothy's words of dismissal. Then, she added, "This cabinet has Helios's golden horn.

Dorothy used the ruby key to unlock the mirror-cabinet, and upon opening it, the brunette from Kansas saw many things in it, including the detached horn of Helios, and grabbed the horn. As she closed the door to the cabinet, she relocked it and looked at Sasami.

"Thanks for leadin' me to Helios's horn." Dorothy smiled at Sasami, who was still worried about Nehelenia, but she was thankful that she could be of assistance to the farm girl.

"My pleasure, but can you do me a favor now?"

"Does it involved Mihoshi?" Dorothy asked in response to the question.

"How did you know?" The female in the mirror gasped.

"I met her after Nelhelenia captured me." Dororthy explained to the trapped servant, "She told me about your plan to escape and how you hadn't return."

"Thank goodness." The servant sighed in relief, "Please tell her that I'm all right, and please take her away from here as quickly as you can."

"I will." The farm girl nodded to the "mother" of Mihoshi, "However, I can't make any promises that she won't try to come back for you."

"Understood." The turquoise-haired girl smiled before said in a rushing tone, "Now, hurry! It won't be long before she finds out that you've stolen her ruby key!"

"Right!" The farm girl said before she ran off, "Thanks again, Sasami!"

"You too, my friend." Sasami said before she added, "And please, do be careful."

As Dorothy made her way back to her friends and her former prison, she quietly passed the opening to Nelhelenia's bed chamber and saw that the magical being was still asleep in the position that the farm girl have left her before she obtained the horn. Seeing that it was safe, Dorothy quickened her pace to reach her friend faster.

Unknown to the farm girl, Nelhelenia stirred in her sleep once again; this time she turned onto her back, and her left hand was on her face. As if on instinct, her yellow eyes with the blue cat-like slits opened and saw that the ruby key and the string was gone!

"It can't be!" The beautiful witch hissed as she sat up, got out of the bed and dashed out the room to see if she was right.

Nelhelenia rushed to the hall of mirror-cabinets and found the ruby key on the floor, which Dorothy unknowingly dropped on her way out. Fearing the worse for her, the witch went to the mirror-cabinet that she knew that she had placed her wand, unlocked it and opened it. Upon looking in there, she screamed out the name of the only person that she believed would be so bold, especially since she was named the witch killer from Kansas.

"DOROTHY GALE!"

The roar-like yell echoed throughout the tower and even reached the name's owner, who was at the top of the tower's staircase, which led to the room where she and Mihoshi met.

"Now, that's not good." The farm girl meeked out as she realized that she and her friends had very little time to act left to execute their plan of escape.

"Dorothy!" Mihoshi's voice rang out to the brunette, who looked at the opened door with the pumpkin-headed being in front of it as Mihoshi shouted, "Get in quick!"

"No need to tell me twice!" Dorothy ran into the room.

Once in the room, Nightingale and Mihoshi shut the door behind the farm girl, who saw that the make-shift sled was ready as a sled made of two couches tied together witth some rope can ever be.

"Do you have the horn, Dorothy?" The scarecrow-like female asked the important question, which was answered by Dorothy showing the horn to Mihoshi and the others.

"What's that?" Muta grumpily asked the farm girl, who said, "Our ticket out of here."

The brunette hurried to the stone statue and placed the gold horn onto the stump that was protuding from the being's head. Taking a step back, Dorothy watched as the stone figure came to life and change from stone to flesh and cloth.

The being rose up and saw Dorothy with a pair of golden irises, which were filled with happiness and relief. With a graceful bow, the being said, "I owe you my graditude; I am Helios, a guardian of the Emerald City."

"Where were you when the city needed ya?" Muta asked with a slight snicker in his voice, but the smug grin that curved with the question faded when Helios answered calmly, "In this very tower as Nelhelena's prime prisoner and source of her stronger magic."

"Now's not the time for games, Muta!" Kiyone shouted at the stray cat with a roar of fury, causing the cat to retreat to sled.

Dorothy's attention was not on her angry friend or the fleeing feline, but it was on Helios as she asked, "Do you know a spell to make this sled to fly, because if you don't, then we're in big trouble."

"Of course," Helios smiled gracefully, "just give me a few seconds."

Then, the horned male stood still for a second, when a white glow appeared around his body, and an invisible wind started to whirl and twist his priest-like clothes. Then, the bright glow became bright enough to temporary blind the members of the group.

"I can't see!" Kiyone, Dorothy and Muta shouted as they attempted to shield their eyes from the harsh light.

Once the light dimmed to a simple glow once again, Dorothy was the first to see Helios in another form: a winged unicorn.

"Helios, is that you?" Dorothy asked as she approached the horse with the golden horn, who nodded and said, "Yes."

The response caused Dorothy and Kiyone to jump back; after all, they were expecting the answer to be verbally.

Then, black reins appeared around Helios's body and attached themselves to the ropes on the sleigh. This was a surpise to the group, but when they heard another roar of fury from the door, the group asked no questions and climbed onto the quickly-made sleigh, and Dorothy grabbed the reins that held onto Helios.

"Are you sure this is safe?!" Muta expressed his doubt to everyone that could hear him.

"We've got an old sayin' back in Kansas," Dorothy announced to the feline, "and it's, 'Don't look a gifted horse in the mouth.'"

Then, the farm girl turned to Helios and shouted out, "Let's get goin'!"

"Right!" The guardian of the capital of Oz agreed as she flapped his wings.

As the wings beated, the sleigh started to have a white and gold glow. The winged unicorn started to run and pulled the sleigh made of couches with great ease, which was a surprise to the relieved group.

"We have take-off!" Kiyone laughed as the sleigh flew off with the winged unicorn, who smiled upon hearing the comment.

"DOROTHY GALE!" Nelhelenia's roar with to the ears of the group, who looked back and saw the royal-red and gold form of Nelhelenia. The witch, who was on the balcony of the tower, swore revenge against the teenaged heroine, and she broke the ruby key in her own fury.

As the group flew over the ruins of the capital of Oz, Dorothy saw the still forms of Jigen and Cerberus and could not help herself from sheding a tear as the flying sleigh exited the skies of the Emerald City. Kiyone noticed this of her friend and went to her side.

"It's okay." The deputy said to her friend in an attempt to comfort her, "They know that you'll save the city and them."

"But I've got to find Tenchi first." Dorothy argued back, showing her concern and some of her self-doubt.

"Dorothy," Helios called out to the farm girl, "who is this Tenchi that you are talking about?"

"He's one of my dearest friends." Dorothy answered the horned horse's question, "He was the first real friend that I've made in Oz."

"Is he important to the Emerald City?"

"Well, he was made the king after Washu gave up the crown to him to search for the rightful hier to the throne."

"Was he given a crown?"

The farm girl closed her eyes and recalled her vision before Kiyone came to her house the day before. Remembering this, Dorothy opened her eyes and said, "Yes, a silver one with green jewels on it."

"Did it fit his head?" The winged unicorn asked, continuing his investigation.

"No, it was loose, and it looked silly on him." Dorothy giggled at the thought.

"Good to hear." Helios said in a graceful tone, "That means that we can find him."

"What are you talking about?" Kiyone interjected herself into the conversation, wanting to know what was going on.

"Well," the horse-like being said as he contined to pull the sleigh, "I am a guardian of the Emerald City, which includes the royal emeralds of the Emerald City. I can track down the emeralds that is in the crown as well as the one that guarded the city."

"Which means we're gonna find Tenchi!" Dorothy shouted joyfully at the news.

"As well as find whomever took him with the emeralds." Kiyone pulled out her gun and checked the chamber for bullets.

"So what do we do?" Mihoshi asked the group.

"I say run for the hills." Muta voiced in his cowardness strongly.

"We must rescue King Tenchi." Nightingale voiced her emotionless resolve to the cat, who sensed that the group had a death wish.

"How about a vote?" Kiyone proposed to the group.

"Good idea." The stray cat agreed, hoping that more members of the group would agree with him, since he knew that more people would prefer to live over getting killed.

"Well, I'm goin' to get Tenchi outta there!" Dorothy announced to the group, whom each of them had their own response to the statement.

"And I was ordered to follow Dorothy and to provide her with my assistance." Nightingale announced as well.

"Dorothy's always had a bad problem of keeping trouble away." Kiyone said with a straight face, "I'm going with you, Dorothy."

"And it looks like I will not be retrieving the royal emeralds alone." Helios stated to the group as he continued to pull the group's lone form of transportation.

"I wanna help you guys out!" A completely obvious Mihoshi announced, earning the annoyance of Muta, who yelled at the pumpkin-headed being.

"Do you have a death wish!?"

"What's that?" Mihoshi asked, not knowing better about what the stray feline was talking about to her.

"Looks like Muta's the loser in this vote." Kiyone joked, earning a death glare from the skinny cat, who cursed out under his breath.

"All right then!" Dorothy turned to Helios and said, "Next stop: to Tenchi and the emeralds!"


	7. Chapter 7

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Seven

In the following morning after the group escaped Nelhelenia's tower and fury, the make-shift sled was still flying in the sky, which was full of the color of the rainbow due to the on-coming sunrise, and half of the sleigh's occupants were asleep, while the others were waiting for girls from Kansas and the stray cat to wake up. However, Helios, in his alterative form of a winged unicorn, was still pulling the sleigh as he went to where the jewels that protected the Emerald City were taken to an unknown place by a mysterious being.

Soon, Dorothy opened her eyes and found herself in the quickly-made sleigh and was confused at first, but then she remembered that she was in Oz. However, the brunette looked over the side and saw only desert on the land below her. Then, she turned to Mihoshi, the pumpkin-headed and stick-bodied being, and Nightingale, the robotic woman, and asked them a question.

"Hey, where are we?"

"We in the sky." Mihoshi answered in a childish manner, which caused Nightingale to comment to the organic being.

"I believe she meant what land we are over, Mihoshi."

"Oh!" Exclaimed the scarecrow-like being before she admitted, "I don't know."

"Well, I know." Nightingale emotionlessly replied to Mihoshi's lack of an answer, "We are over the Deadly Desert."

"So, that's the name of this place." Muta's voice grabbed the awake females' attention, which turned to the stray cat that was looking down at the arid and lifeless land.

"What are talkin' about, Muta?" Dorothy asked the Kansas-native feline, who answered bluntly,"This is the place we were at, when we came to Oz."

"Really?" Dorothy asked the tomcat, who continued to speak about where he and the Kansas-born girls landed after the night that the girls were attacked by the mysterious woman.

"That's right." The male cat confirmed with the nod.

The brunette turned to the robot and asked, "Do you know anything about the Deadly Desert, besides the name?"

"Yes," the red-headed robot answered in a deadpan voice, "the Deadly Desert is known for its deadly magic."

"What kind of magic?" Dorothy asked, which Nightingale answered, "It is cursed sand, which can turn any living thing into a part of it."

"You've got to be kidding me!?" Kiyone yelled out to the group, and the shout echoed throughout the desert, reaching a mountain that was just ahead of the sleigh made of sofas.

Inside the mountain, the dark being that the twin witches called their Lord heard the shout, grinned darkly with a grim chuckle escape from his throat and said, "We have some guests coming, and I know exactly who is among them."

"What should we do?" The elderly witches, Kotake and Koume, asked their leader, not knowing what to do about Dorothy and her group.

"Allow them to come closer before we attack them." The witches' master declared, which made the magical duo cackle with dark glee.

"I'll freeze them into ice statues!" The blue-claded witch announced, which the red twin announced in response, "That is, if I don't burn them up into crisps first, Kotake."

Then, the twin sisters summoned two broomsticks, and each took a broom and flew off to await for the arrival of Dorothy and her allies. This left the dark Lord alone with his thoughts.

"Well, Dorothy Gale," the darkly clothed man grimmly spoke to the physically distant girl, "let's see how you can escape the Twin Witches of the Gerudo."

The sisters flew out of the mountian's shade and into the arid air of the nearly lifeless land, and they waited until the flying sofas where close enough for the twins to attack. Koume was the first to strike at Dorothy and her friend by throwing a fireball at them, but the flame missed, due to Helios seeing the dangerous projectile.

"Whoa!" The young farmgirl shouted as she tried to maintain her balance on the make-shift sleigh. Then, she looked at Helios and yelled out a question.

"Helios! What's goin' on?"

"We're being attacked!" The horse with the golden horn yelled back at the farmgirl, who looked at the side of the sleigh and saw the attackers: the Twin Witches of the Gerudo.

"Nice try, sister!" Kotake cackled upon seeing the miss, "Now, it's my turn!"

Then, a bolt of ice flew out of the blue-claded hag's hand and nearly hit the sofa-sleigh, since Helios also saw that on-coming attack as well.

"Who's attacking us?" Kiyone demanded to know the identities of the people attacking the sofas-sleigh, which was answered by Nightingale.

"They are the Twin Witches of the Gerudo, the most powerful females of the Gerudo people."

"And exactly who or what the Gerudo people are?" Kiyone asked through her gritted teeth, apparently annoyed with the robot's blunt answer.

Before the woman-like robot could answer, another fireball flew at the sofa. Although it failed to destory the make-shift sleigh, a small flame was left behind, causing panic for those that possessed the emotion of fear.

"Oh, no!" Kiyone meeked out.

Dorothy was quick as she removed her backpack and pulled out the ball Pallas had given her before the Kansas girl returned to her aunt and uncle. As Dorothy pulled the ball into the morning sunlight, Muta took this opportunity to stow away in the brunette's backpack.

"Hey!" Dorothy yelled out, which the retreating feline replied bluntly, "I'm not coming out of here until this bag's on solid ground!"

The brunette would have lost her temper at that moment, however since there were twin witches attacking them, she wisely held her temper and turned to her friends and started to take some authority.

"We better get off of the sleigh before things get even worse!"

However, the flame that was slowly eating the couches, which were tied together by some rope, growing bigger. Things were indeed getting worse.

Dorothy made her way to Helios's side of the sleigh and shouted out to the winged unicorn, "Helios, can you carry a lot of weight?"

"I can carry over a hundred kilos." Helios replied as calmly as he could, but due to the situation that he was in, there was a tone of panic in his voice.

"Good to hear." Dorothy announced before her attention returned to her friends and said, "Guys, get on Helios's back."

"What?" Kiyone and Mihoshi were shocked at Dorothy Gale's words as well as unexpected from the Witch Killer from Kansas.

"You heard me!" Dorothy shouted back, "I'm not goin' let my friends get killed because of me!"

Kiyone knew Dorothy long enough to know when the brunette was being serious; so she nodded and said, "Understood."

Mihoshi and Nightingale were confused; Mihoshi was willing, though reluctant, to obey Dorothy's command, however Nightingale was more resistant.

"I am sorry, Dorothy, but your command goes against my orders from King Tenchi. I must disobey that order."

"Sorry," Dorothy countered as the blue ball in her hand glowed brightly, "but you're gonna make an exception this time."

Then, the glowing orb changed its shape into a sword-like form, and Dorothy used the weapon to cut through the rope, causing the sleigh to fall part.

Helios, who had dissolved the magical reins from the sleigh and himself, carried Kiyone and Mihoshi to safety, while Dorothy and a determined Nightingale stayed on the flaming and falling sofas; Dorothy was on one, and the robot was on the other.

"Dorothy, get off of there!" Kiyone and Mihoshi shouted in unison as their friend was falling to her possible doom.

The brunette farmgirl took no heed to the panicked females' words; she was more worried about the safety of Nightingale.

"Nighingale!" Shouted the Kansas farmgirl, "Get to off of the sofa! Now!"

Nightingale was trying to respond to the statement, but she was too far away for Dorothy to hear her in the distance.

Then, the farmgirl noticed the attacking twins again, which caused the farmgirl to attempt to protect herself from the hags' attacks Once the attacks were executed and headed towards Dorothy, the girl's purple hair-tie glowed brightly, summoning its magic to project a shield to reflect the attacks back at the witches.

The Twin Witches of the Gerudo saw the redirected projectiles of magic and retreated by to the mountain that they had exited from earlier, causing the attacks to collide in the sky that resulted in a powerful explosion.

Dorothy did not have time to enjoy the sight of the explosion, because she was trying to prevent her death. Recalling Pallas's blue ball in her hand, Dorothy jumped off of the burning sofa, which fell onto the ground and shattered into pieces of wood, cloth, stuffing and embers.

"Boy, that was a close one!" Laughed a relieved Dorothy as the ball in an umbrella form helped the foreign female gentlely float down to the mountian that the flying sleigh was over when the sleigh was brought down.

Once the umbrella-holding female felt solid ground on her feet, she did the umbrella, which turned back into its ball form, back into her backpack, and then she was greeted by Kiyone, Mihoshi and Helios in his human form; all of them were concerned about their friend's well-being. The first one that reached the tomboyish female was Kiyone, who threw a powerful punch right at Dorothy's face, but the brunette girl stepped back a couple of steps.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" Shouted the dark teal-haired deputy from Kansas, who was even more upset about the brunette's disregard for personal safety.

"Tryin' to protect you and the rest of my friends." Dorothy folded her arms and expressed a lack of regret of her actions.

"Dammit!" Kiyone shouted, when Dorothy's attention was turned towards another point on the mountain the group was on, causing the deputy to lose some more of her temper again.

"Dorothy, you're not listening to me!"

Dorothy ignored her best friend from Kansas, because she was worried about the fate of Nightingale, whom Kiyone seemed to have forgotten about due to her anger towards the brunette. Quickly, the farmgirl looked for the robot and found her.

"Nightingale, you're okay!" Dorothy yelled gleefully upon seeing the robot from the Emerald City, who looked at her after hearing the farmgirl.

"Dorothy, are you unharmed?" Nightingale asked without any emotion in her voice to the farmgirl, who answered the inquiry, "I'm okay. And you?"

"I do not believe that I am undamaged from the fall, even though my landing had a slight imperfection." The red-headed, woman-like machine responded to the short question.

"Dorothy!" Mihoshi's voice rang off to the Kansas girl and the mechanic woman, who looked at the direction of the cry, but they saw no one.

"This isn't lookin' good." Dorothy's voice was low from the bad feeling that was creeping on her mind and the nearly overwhelming concern for her friends.

"We must investigate." The ever-emotionless Nightingale announced to the female of Kansas, who nodded in agreement before the two of them ran to the source of the call out.

Upon arriving to the area of the shout, Dorothy and Nightingale were met with spears pointed at them. The brunette looked beyond the weapons and saw the warriors holding the blades: women with orange skin, fiery-red hair and clothes that looked like the style of the Arabians. From this look, the Kansas-native farmgirl came to a plausible guess: the woman that attacked her and Kiyone, back in Kansas, must be from this tribe.

"So, this is the famous Witch Killer." One of the woman, who was wearing a cloth mask over her bandana her mouth, noticed Dorothy, "You look like much."

"Be careful!" Another of the women, who was wearing a navy blue outfit and lacked a mask, warned her fellow warrior, "That might have the same thought the Queen-Witch of the East and the Vampire-Witch of the West had when they were killed."

Dorothy moaned mentally, not liking hearing about how she killed the wicked witches; Beryl, the Queen-Witch of the East, was killed when Dorothy, who was in a magical cyclone a moment earlier, bumped into Beryl's statue of herself, meaning that Dorothy and Beryl never met in life. Elda, the Vampire-Witch of the West, met her fate by Dorothy's accidentally-placed hand as well, but Dorothy knew nothing about the pink-haired witch's weakness towards water when the farmgirl threw the bucket of water, while trying to defend Pallas.

Then, the brunette noticed that one of the women, who was wearing an attire of blood red, appproaching her.

"Dorothy Gale," the red-claded woman spoke to her with an unexpected tone of respect towards the brunette, "your friends are unharmed, and if you wish that fact to remain true, you and your robot shall meet with our King."

"I'll agree to it," a powerfully-toned voiced Dorothy said to the apparent leader of the group of women, "but my friends must be with me when I meet with your King."

"Understood." The leader nodded to Kansas-native girl, "Follow me."

Dorothy and Nightingale followed the red-claded women into the mountain and into a underground corridor, while the woman's troops followed the "guests" of their home. Along the way, Dorothy and Nightingale saw their allies, who were walking in a slower pace and with less guardsthan the twosome and their "escorts."

"Dorothy! Nightingale!" Kiyone exclaimed in a relieved shout, "Are you guys alright? Did they hurt you?"

"No," Dorothy shook her head, causing her brown hair to wave in its restraintive tie, "why did you think that?"

"Well, we thought you were hurt, since we didn't see you." Mihoshi answered that time, causing the the deputy with the dark teal hair to be annoyed.

"Especially, when the Gerudo are infamous for not being very kind to outsiders." Helios stated, which caused the warrior women to glare at him. The horned male saw the golden-tipped daggers that were the women's eyes pointed at him, he added in a meekish voice, "Usually the males."

"Why would they not like males, especially since they have a king?" Dorothy asked since she lacked the knowledge about the Gerudo people.

That question was answered, but it was not one of Dorothy's friends who answered the inquiry; it was the Gerudo woman in red garmets.

"We're a proud people that mostly consists of females that is blessed with a male once for every one hundred years. During the time without a king, our people works at every job and kind of work without the barrier of gender, which most of the fools that live in Oz possess, hindering us. This is hardly changed when there is a king in our tribe."

"I see." The farmgirl announced her mental musing, "And, you believe that women can do anything a man can do."

"Of course!" The red wearing memeber of the warriors nearly exclaimed, "And I personally think it's disgusting that the males would believe that women are inferior to them!"

When the leader announced her displeasure towards the double-standard of the genders from the other races that they had encountered, the other women nodded in agreement.

"That doesn't mean that it's always true." The famed foreginer was still musing at the female leader's statement.

That surprised the warrior women in the area, mostly the red-claded woman, who asked, "So, you're from a land that is different from the land of Oz."

"Yeah," Dorothy nodded, "although the people there, this is from Kansas, are more like a mixture of your people and those from Oz."

"This land sounds promising." This time, it was the red-wearing female's turn to muse at the words of the famous Witch Killer, not the other way around.

"I wouldn't visit there right now, though." Dorothy said in a nervous manner, "Times are rough over there."

"Understood." The leader of the warriors said with a kind, yet sad, smile on the face. Then, she changed the tone of her voice and said, "Let's go."

Once again, Dorothy, Kiyone, Nightingale, Mihoshi and Helios were walking down the underground corridor, however Dorothy and Kiyone started whispering to each other.

"Dorothy, what's going on?"

"Not a clue, Kiyone. However, I have a feelin' about these woman and their king."

"What makes you say that?"

"Don't know; I just have it."

"Great." Kiyone moaned through her teeth as she slowed down, when she felt a sharp, metal object poked at her back, causing the deputy sheriff to jump up with a slight fright.

"Keep going." The woman that poked Kiyone with her weapon said to the deputy, who wanted to say something obscene to her, but wisely held her tongue; she knew that she was no match for the warriors that were "escorting" her and her friends down the hall.

Soon, the groups reached a pair of ivory-white doors, which were accented with orange-tan markings on it. Dorothy and her friends were nervous about meeting the King of the Gerudo, because they did not know if the King was just as dangerous as the warrior women, if not more or less.

"Our King awaits for you beyond these doors." The red-claded leader announced to the mixed-up group of five.

"Thank you." Dorothy nodded the the woman that lead her group to that point, "I hope when we meet again that we're on the same side."

The leader smiled sadly again, but this time, she added something else to the weak grin.

"Aveil."

"Huh?"

"Aveil is my name." The red-claded woman managed her sad smile as she spoke, as if she were saying good bye to a dear friend of hers.

"Again," Dorothy said to the leader, "thanks, Aveil."

Then, Dorothy's group entered through the doors, leaving the warrior women behind. Aveil was saddened by Dorothy's departure, knowing that there was a strong chance that the foreigner stood little chance against the King of the Gerudo, and the dreadful feeling was shared by her group.

Once the group of five entered the room, they could hardly see what was in front of them, and to make things worse, the doors closed behind them. The members of the group did not know what was going to happen next.

"I not liking this." Kiyone hissed under her breath.

The other heard the whispered comment and could help themselves when they agreed with her, since they so little about the Gerudo King.

"You've finally arrived." A man's deep voice echoed throughout the darkness of the room, "Welcome to my humble abode."

As if on cue, torches of wood were lit with fire, illumminating the room and exposing a table with food and a throne with a man on it. The memebers of the group were both scared and in awe of the man more than anything else in the room.

With flaming red-orange hair and dark olive-green skin, the man looked regal with his black armor, which was accented with some gold, and menacing with his amber eyes, which had a gleam of a intention that was as dark as the armor and as bright as the topaz that was seated above the man's forehead. Even sitting down, the man's height was seen by all of the man's "guests."

Dorothy was the first of the group to notice the two witches that had attacked her and her friends earlier, and she was not in a mood to be nice to them or to the man that seat on the seat that the hags were hiding behind. Oddly, she was not the first to speak the dark man.

"Where are the Emeralds, Ganondorf!" The horned man, Helios, shouted out to the ruler of the Gerudo people.

The lone male of his people grinned darkly as he commented back to Helios.

"Well, aren't you clever? However, I'm not that surprised that a guardian of the Emerald City and the Emeralds themselves would have figured it out."

The white-haired, boy-appearing male grimance at the man with red-orange hair, who was still smiling with a hidden intention on his lips. However, Helios was not important to the Gerudo King at that time.

"Dorothy Gale." Ganongdorf's voice boomed at the announcement, grabbing the brunette farmgirl's attention, "The famed dispatcher of wicked witches and beloved savior of Oz." Then, his face weakened a little as did his tone of what seemed to be praise, "I was expecting you to be more impressive."

Dorothy was not impressed with the Gerudo's "praise" towards her; in fact, the only words that the Kansas girl believed was the part that was in a disappointed tone.

"Well, I'm not here to impress anyone." Dorothy was proud about herself, despite what her aunt had often said about her appearance needing an improvement.

"Hmm..." Dorothy and Kiyone noticed that the man was in a deep thought, which told each young woman that he was planning something, and both girls sensed that it was not good for them at all.

Then, Ganondorf spoke to Dorothy again.

"Well, such a bold personality, almost reminds me of the rest of the Gerudo. However, I tend to take an interest in those who possess abilities that is... unique."

"What do you mean?" Dorothy looked at Ganondorf, who looked at her, with every eye looking at the conversing duo.

"Being able to defeat two witches within the same week is no small feat; even Zeniba and Kakyuu, two of Oz's most powerful witches, had some difficulty when they fought the wicked female that once ruled the north and the south."

Dorothy, as well as her allies, knew that the witches that he was mentioning were not the same ones that knew cackling behind Ganondorf's throne. Also, the brunette heard some tone of honest praise in the dark man's voice.

"Of course," the Gerudo male spoke again, "I was somewhat disappointed that you did not kill Nelhelenia, which only cause me to this assumsion: the witches' deaths were merely accidents."

At that point, Dorothy did not know whether to be relieved that someone believed the truth or concerned that the one person that believed her to be a normal girl was the one responsible for destorying the Emerald City after stealing the Emeralds that protected it and the capital's ruler, who was also one of her dearest friends.

"Killin' them was not my intention." Dorothy announced in a bark-like voice to the Gerudo King, causing the Kotake and Koume to flinch in shock, however, Ganondorf was not unfazed by the farmgirl.

"I'm not suprised, but I believe I should tell you that your friend, Tenchi, is still alive." The Gerudo King announced, allowing the twins witches to start cackling under their breath.

That announcement shocked everyone, mostly Dorothy, and the leader of the warrior women added to the statement after seeing the surprised looks of his guests' faces.

"That is, if you call him being an knick-knack still alive."

The fury in Dorothy's eyes were evident to her allies and friends, as well as her opponents.

"If you wish to see your friends again, you'll have to play a little game of mine; I believe it to be quite enjoyable."

Kiyone looked at Dorothy, who would normally have a smart remark about a smug comment from a cocky-sounding person, but she was surprised that the farmgirl was silent. However, the deputy also was aware that Dorothy was about to do something foolish, if not brave.

"What are the rules of the game?" Dorothy asked in a serious tone of voice, confirming Kiyone's feeling about Dorothy's choose to play Ganondorf's game.

"They're very simple." The Gerudo King explained as his shadowly smile remained on his face, "Just look in my collection of knick-knack, and when you find one that you believe is Tenchi, touch it and say, 'Oz.' You only allowed to do this three times."

"So, what happens if we don't succeed in finding Tenchi?" Kiyone stepped forward, surprising Dorothy.

"Well," Ganondorf's smile became wider, "you'l become a part of my collection."

This was a complete shock to the group, but to find Tenchi, it was a gamble that they would have to take.

Dorothy turned to her friends, who all silently agreed to play the life-changing game with a nod. With a nod towards her friends, the farmgirl turned to face Ganondorf again and said, "We'll play."

"Good to hear." Ganondorf calmly cheered, "Now, who's going first?"

"I am." Kiyone stepped forward, surprising Dorothy again.

"Interesting..." Mused the king of the Gerudo women before directing where Kiyone was to go, saying, "Go to the tunnel over there and follow it to the end; my collection lies beyond the doors that you will see at the end of the hall."

Kiyone nodded her head towards the lone male of the Gerudo, and then the deputy sheriff turned to Dorothy with a look in her sky-blue eyes that said something like, 'Figure out this guy's weakness.' Then, with a brave face, Kiyone Makibi made her way to her fate.

After Kiyone's departure, Ganondorf turned to the 'guests' and offered the presented fruits on the table, while the group waited to learn of Kiyone's results.

As the group waited, a thunderous rumbling was hear by everyone in the room three times. The first time it happened, Ganondorf explained that the rumbling was to indicate that Kiyone had made a wrong choose. The second time the thunder was heard was not met with as much surprise. However, the third thunder-like rumbling was not only heard; it was also felt by everyone.

Upon the thrid rumbling, almost everyone was startled by it, with the expection of Nightingale, the Gerudo witches and Ganondorf, who said, "Kiyone has failed... Who's next?"

Dorothy turned to her friends and saw that the others, excluding Nightingale, had an expression that said that Dorothy should stay and try to figure out what information Ganondorf had in his mind.

Helios was the next to volunteer to face the life-altering "game," and he made his way to the hallway, which Ganondorf made a comment about the white-haired male's ability to detect the Emeralds, which the younger-looking man said in response, "It would be easier if you lower that magical veener that you've draped over the mountain."

Some time went by, and the three thunderous rumbling announced themselves again, telling all in the room that Helios had failed as well. This caused Mihoshi, who was nervous and hesitant, to face the challege of find King Tenchi.

"Wish me luck." The girl made of wood and fruit waved her friends a farewell before walking down the hall and to Ganondorf's collection.

Within thirty minutes, the trio of rumblings were heard, announcing Mihoshi's failure as well, causing Nighingale to stand up and make her way to the hallway.

"Good luck, Nightingale..." Dorothy muttered under her breath as she watched her remaining ally enter the dark passageway to her fate.

Another half-hour passed by, however only two rumbles of what seemed to be thunder had only announced themselves, and this worried the farmgirl about her friend even more. Ganondorf, on the other hand, remained calm, especially when he saw the concerned expression on the girl's youthful face.

Turning to the witches, Koume and Kotake, the leader of the Gerudo woman gave a command to the twin spellcasters' ears, and the twins obeyed and flew off to the hallway.

Dorothy watched as the twin witches flew off, and this sight caused Dorothy to be worried; even though Koume and Kotake were on the side that was responsible for the ruin of the capital of Oz, their presence was an odd comfort to her, since she could feel Ganondorf's eye glaring at her form as soon as the twins were gone.

"So, Dorothy Gale," the Gerudo King broke the silence in the throne room, "why are you so interested in finding a man made of straw?"

Dorothy did not know why the dark olive-skinned man was asking such a personal question, but he was going to get an answer.

"Tenchi's my friend, and I was raised not to leave my friends in a dangerous situation, no matter what."

"Really?" Ganondorf seemed to scoff at the reply, "That seems to be a weak reason. Why not for gold or power?"

"Gold or power?" The farmgirl asked in a confused tone. Then, she answered bluntly, "I think those things are worthless to me."

The statement was apparent surprise to the Gerudo King, who was expecting a completely different answer. After a moment of dropping his dark grin, Ganondorf regained it as he said the word, "Interesting..."

Then, Koume and Kotake returned, causing Ganondorf to divert his attention from Dorothy, who was silently sighing in relief.

"What is it?" The king asked the ancient women, who answered, "It seemed that the one called Nightingale has stopped moving."

"Really?" Dorothy heard the falseness in Ganondorf's voice as she felt the leader of the Gerudo women return his eye sight at her form. Then, he added, "Well, I might assume that Dorothy would know something about this... interesting turn of events."

Dorothy had a feeling that Ganondorf believed that Nightingale was planning something, and that Dorothy was in on it, but that was not true.

"The only thing that I would assume is that Nightingale needs to be winded up again."

Whether or not Ganondorf believed the statement was not Dorothy's concern; seeing that Nightingale was unharmed was the Kansas girl's main concern at that point.

Pulling out the key that was used to "awaken" Nightingale, the farm girl turned to Ganondorf with a mask of bravery to hide her nervousness.

"May I please go to her so she could finish her turn?"

The dark smile of Ganondorf widened as he said, "You may, and as soon as she finishes, you can start your turn."

Dorothy had a bad feeling about the leader of the warrior women when he mentioned about her turn, but she knew that she had to go to Nightingale's aid, if it was truly needed. Also, she was thankful that she was not going to stay in that room; she did not like that way Ganondorf was looking at her, even though the king's examination was not like the lustful looks that Kiyone's boss, who was the sheriff, would give her.

Once the Kansas girl entered the dark hallyway to the Gerudo King's collection, Koume and Kotake turned to their master and asked their own question.

"My Lord, don't you think that this is a trick?" The red-robed sister expressed her and her sister's concern about Dorothy.

Then, the blue-claded sister asked, "What if she figures out which object is the false man, Tenchi?"

"You, the ones that raised me, doubt my judgement?" Ganondorf looked at the hags with a face of mock hurt.

The twins stepped back in shock, realizing that they were questioning their master's intention, however, before they could even start begging for forgiveness, the Gerudo King spoke again.

"Whether or not she finds Tenchi will be by pure chance, not by the thinking process of a clockwork doll."


	8. Chapter 8

Return to Oz

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Eight

Dorothy went through the dark tunnel that led to the room that held Ganondorf's collection and her friends as "residents" of the room. Soon, the simple farmgirl found herself facing a pair of doors that looked just like the ones that led her and her friends to the leader of the Gerudo women.

"Well," Dorothy spoke to herself as she took in a deep breath, "here goes nothing."

Then, she pushed open the door and entered the room that held her friends as prisoners, and if she fails to find Tenchi and them, she would be joining them.

Entering the room, the room was white with golden accents and have many things of Ganondorf's collection in the room, some of the things were her friends. Dorothy looked around and found a still, human-like thing.

"Nightingale!" The Kansan girl called out to the mechanic woman, who was standing up as straight as a line.

Reaching her friend's side, Dorothy pulled out the key that helped Nightingale to move, think and talk. However, Dorothy was halted by an unexpected sound.

"Dorothy," the robotic woman spoke in an hushed, yet emotionless, voice, "pretend that you are winding me up, and I will explain the purpose of my chrade."

"Okay." Dorothy whispered back with a nod, and did as she was told to do.

Getting behind the red-headed woman and "winding" her up, Nightingale started to explain to Dorothy about why she faked winding down.

"I came up with an idea that might be able to help us locate King Tenchi and maybe our allies. All you have to do is see what kind of object I change into and use that clue to find King Tenchi."

"That's a good idea," Dorothy said as she completed "winding" the robot up, "but what if Ganondorf thought that far ahead of that plan?"

"That is a chance we will have to take to help us find King Tenchi." Nightingale replied as she walked to a nearby object and placed a single finger on it.

"I wish you the best of luck." Nightingale said to Dorothy, who was starting to cry, "Do not worry about me; I will be unharmed."

Then, the robot turned her attention to the object she was touching and said, "Oz." This caused a powerful rumble and a bright flash of light that blinded the farmgirl for a moment.

"Nightingale?" The brunette girl opened her eyes and saw no trance of her friend that ran on clockwork. There was not even a new object that was in the place of Nightingale, and this told her that Ganondorf knew that someone was going to pull that trick.

"Damn!" Dorothy hissed, knowing that she needed a miracle to find all of her friends that were prisoners of the Gerudo King.

* * *

Ganondorf, haviing sensed the rumbling and knowing that Nightingale had failed to find the scarecrow that became the ruler of Oz, rose from his throne and went to a darken corner of the room. A cloaked object resided in the corner, and Ganondorf, upon reaching the object, pulled off the cover and revealed a mirror. The king of the Gerudo women touched the looking-glass and the reflection started rippling, like water that was touched by a foreign object, and changed into a bedroom. Ganondorf's reflection was changed into a woman with dark hair and blue and yellow eyes.

"Nelhelenia." Ganondorf spoke in a civil tone, "Have you been waiting very long?"

The vain witch was not amused with the question, and the displeasured expression on her face maintained its place as the woman crossed the mirror, which was a magical portal from her personal mirror in her room to Ganondorf's mirror that rested in his throne room.

"Ganondorf," Nelhelenia spoke out, going straight to business, "Dorothy Gale is on her way here!"

"Nelhelenia, she is not on her way here." The Gerudo King announced, earning a shocked look from the witch's face, which was followed by angry recount of what Dorothy and her allies did to her.

"Dorothy sneaked into my room in the middle of the night and stold my ruby key. Following that, she took my golden wand and gave it to that old guardian of the Emerald City. Then, she and her friends used two of my sofas and made it into a sleigh of sorts!"

"Quiet, Nelhelenia." A dark tone flew out of Ganondorf's mouth, silencing the cat-eyed female, before saying, "They came here to play a simple game."

"A simple game?" The dark-haired woman repeated back to the lone male of the Gerudo tribe. Then, she asked, "Why didn't you just get rid of them all at once?"

"I like to see how my opponents react to certain situations." Ganondorf chuckled as he explained his actions to Nelhelenia, "At this moment, even as we speak, Dorothy Gale is the last one."

"So, how many tries does she have left?" The mirror-using witch asked the king of Death Mountain, who was willing to answer the question.

Before he could answer the inquiry, a rumble prevented the male Gerudo from saying anything for a few seconds. Once the rumbling ended, Ganondorf answered, "Two."

* * *

Back in the room filled with Ganondorf's knick-knacks, Dorothy had failed to find Tenchi, but she still had two more tries to find her dear friend and the ruler of Oz.

The farmgirl looked at the object that she had touched, which was as simple in appearance, like Tenchi when the friends first met weeks earlier. With a thought in her mind, she said, "Maybe something as fancy as Tenchi was simple?"

She looked around the room and found something that she thought that was about as fancy as Tenchi's simple appearance.

Touching the fancy-looking figure, Dorothy said, "Oz." Upon saying the name of the land that most of her friends lived in, the ground rumbled, telling the farmgirl that she had picked the wrong object.

"One more try..." Dorothy said under her breath, "What am I goin' to do?"

Dorothy's eyes started to fill up with tears, feeling the hopelessness swell inside of her heart; a deep despair. The only other time she had felt that depressed about anything was when she was in Oz for the first time.

* * *

_It was the first night that she was with the winged lion, Cerberus, and everyone was getting ready to settle in for the night. Dorothy was the only one that was not saying a word to anyone, not even Toto, who was wimpering._

_"Dorothy," Jigen, who was the man made of tin at the time, "what's wrong? You haven't said a word all night."_

_Dorothy knew that Jigen was right, so she answered as tears started rolling down her eyes and Toto placed his head onto the girl's lap._

_"Well, I was thinkin' that what the Wizard can't grant our wishes. That would mean that Toto and I can't go home!"_

_Then, the homesick girl started crying hard, causing the males of the group worry about the girl. They did not know what to do._

_Then, Tenchi, who never knew about his own intellgence, formed an idea. Going to Dorothy, the straw-filled man spoke to Dorothy._

_"Dorothy, if you're not able to get back to your home, you can stay with one of us in the land of Oz."_

_Feeling a little better about the offer, Dorothy smiled, but she had another thought enter her mind, and she was not as shy to expressed it._

_"What about if we get in trouble and we need to get any of the others?"_

_Jigen knew that the questions were forged from the girl's fear of not being able return to her home land. He thought for a moment and got an idea himself._

_"Dorothy," the tinman spoke to the girl, who turned to him, "Can I see your hair tie for a moment?"_

_"Why do you want to see it?" Dorothy asked the former man, who answered with a grin._

_"You don't have to give it to me, but I do want to see it."_

_"Okay." Dorothy nodded before she grabbed her ponytail and started removing the enchanted hair tie from her brunette hair._

_While the farmgirl pulled out the purple tie, Jigen gathered Tenchi and Cerberus to Dorothy's side. Then, Toto started hopping around, sensing that something was going on with the foursome._

_"Okay, guys. I know a spell that might ease Dorothy a little; all I need is some hair from you guys."_

_"But, Jigen," Tenchi stated in an unsure voice, "I don't have any hair, and Cerberus has only fur. I don't know if your spell could work."_

_"Fur can do just fine, Tenchi." The tin marksman announced before plucking a small piece of the winged lion's fur, causing the lion to roar in pain._

_"Ow! That hurts!"_

_Dorothy heard the winged lion's moan and went to him, asking, "Cerberus, are you okay?"_

_"It's nothing, Dorothy." The jewel-wearing lion responded while rubbing his paw on his head, "Just a few plucked pieces of fur; that's all."_

_"Why were some of your fur pulled?" Dorothy asked, confused about what would make the winged lion roar in pain._

_"Hey!" Tenchi yelled out, causing Dorothy's attention to the scarecrow and the tinman, who had a couple of pieces of straw in his hand._

_"What's going on, Jigen?" The simple farmgirl asked the tin marksman, who removed his hat as he answered the inquiry._

_"I guess trying to proform a spell."_

_Dorothy was going to say something about the spell, but then she recalled the first time she encountered him, causing to remain silent for a while._

_"Found it!" Jigen announced as he pulled out some hair from the inside of his hat, "Now, I can do the spell."_

_"What spell?" Dorothy asked, "And why does it my hair tie have anything to do with that spell?"_

_"Well," Jigen explained it to the girl as well as the others, "It's just in case you need to find us, but you can't. So, where's the hair tie?"_

_"On my wrist." Dorothy bluntly answered, pointing to the metioned area on the right side of her body, "I always put my hair ties there, just in case I need to do something."_

_"That's better than I was expecting." Jigen commented to the teenaged girl, who asked with a look of suspcion in her eye, "And what are you about to do with my hair tie?"_

_"Just watch." Jigen said with an artful grin on his metal face as he wrapped the straw from Tenchi, Cerberus's fur and the hair that Jigen found in his hat, which was his hair before Beryl, the Queen-Witch of the East, cursed him into the form of a tin, around his right index finger._

_Speaking in a quiet incantation that none of his allies could heard, the pieces of the three talking males glowed brightly as the pieces became liquid-like and went into the tin marksman's finger. As soon as the pieces were in the barrel-like finger, Jigen aimed the magically infused pieces at Dorothy's wrist and fired._

_The blast pushed Dorothy to the ground, aroused the fury of Cerberus, who was quick to confront Jigen, but Tenchi managed to halt him._

_"Cerberus, it's okay! Jigen's blast can't harm any good-hearted people, so Dorothy's all right!"_

_"For his sake and yours," the maneless lion announced after managing to control his temper, "she better be unharmed, outside being knocked down."_

_"Ow..." Dorothy moaned as she got to her feet, while trying to keep Toto off of her face, "That's landin' was painful!"_

_"Sorry about that, Dorothy." Jigen went to the fallen girl and tried to help her, but she made it by herself._

_"It's okay, Jigen." Dorothy said as she dusted off her pants and shirt, "But what was the meanin' for all of that?"_

_"It's like I've said; it's to help you find us whenever you need to find us." Jigen smiled as he returned his hat to his head, "One never knows when it could be useful."_

_"Thanks, Jigen." The farmgirl said with a smile, "I'm sure that it'll be helpful."_

* * *

Remembering the spell that Jigen, the former Tin Marksman, had given her about a month earlier, Dorothy pulled out her hair tie that was enchanted by Zeniba and Jigen, Zeniba's only son, and put it around her wrist.

"Oh!" The girl gasped out, "I better get Muta out of my backpack as well as the silver slippers."

Pulling off her backpack from her person, Dorothy unzipped her pack and opened it. Upon opening, an annoyed Muta poked his head out and started to berate the teenager.

"What the hell are you doing interrupting my nap?! I ought to scratch at your face and your clothes, and then-!"

"Not now, Muta!" Dorothy halted the verbal attack from the stray cat, "I need to get the slippers before I try somethin' that determined the fate of the land of Oz!"

"Ow!" The cat hissed out as Dorothy grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, "Put me down!"

"Gladly." The brunette placed the hot-headed feline onto the ground before she returned to her pack and pulled out the silver slippers.

"What do ya need them for anyway?" The grumpy cat asked as he watched Dorothy remove and replace the girl's sneakers with the powerful artifacts.

"What does it look like to you?" Dorothy asked in a sarcatic tone at the cat, and then she added with the same additude and without the sarcasm, "It's in case Ganondorf has another backup plan."

"Well," Muta voiced out his thoughts in a calm tone, "that's a good idea." Then, he realized something about Dorothy's statement, causing him to exclaim, "Another backup plan!?"

"That's what I've said." Dorothy admitted to the panicked cat, "Now, please be quiet, so I can concentrate."

"On what?" Muta mocked the farmgirl, who started to twhirl around in place, "Practicing your dance steps?"

"No, trying to find Tenchi." Dorothy replied in her spin as she closed her eyes and extended her arms in front of her person.

"Riiiiight." Muta was doubtful about Dorothy's choice of seeking the location of the missing Tenchi, but he had seen many strange things in the land that was Oz, so he chose to be quiet and see if Dorothy was going in the right way.

Then, Dorothy stopped spinning and started walking the direction she was pointed at, still keeping her eyes closed. Muta chose to stay close to Dorothy, in case that she tripped.

To the feline's surprise, the hair tie glowed brightly as it guided Dorothy to the location of her dear friend. It only glowed brightly to help the girl evade bumping into a shelf or an object.

Then, the glow dimmed and faded back into the hair tie. Dorothy's eyebrows wrinkled around her closed eyes before the eyelids opened, showing the brunette female let was in front of her: an emerald-like stone.

"So," Muta spoke out in a mocking tone, "that's what you hair holder you to? A shiny paperweight?" The cat started laughing as he added, "This is too funny! Ha, ha, ha, HA!"

The nearly twenty-year-old female stuck out her tongue at the mocking cat, who was nearly unable to breath. Turning her attention to the gem-like bric-a-brac, Dorothy was starting to doubt the power of Jigen's spell, she had enough faith in her friends to trust in the direction of the spell.

This was the moment Dorothy had dreaded when she and her friends agreed to play this "game" that Ganondorf offered them: the moment that decided the fates of herself, her friends and the land of Oz itself. Her fingers trembled as the tips felt the smooth, cold surface of the object that was supposed to be Tenchi, and every inch of her very being shook with fear as she took in a very deep breath.

"Here goes nothing." The girl's voice shook with tension and fear, before she said what could be the very last thing she might have ever said, "Oz."

A burst of white light engulfed the room, blinding the girl and the cat. It was so bright that some of the beams escaped the room and grabbed the attentions of the Gerudo King and the vain witch.


End file.
